i
THE AMERICAN NATION
A HISTORY
FROM ORIGINAL SOURCES BY ASSOCIATED SCHOLARS
EDITED BY
ALBERT BUSHNELL HART, LL.D.
PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ADVISED BY
VARIOUS HISTORICAL SOCIETIES
IN 27 VOLUMES
VOL. 21
THE AMERICAN NATION
A HISTORY
LIST OF AUTHORS AND TITLES
Group I.
Foundations of the Nation
Vol. I European Background of American
History, by Edward Potts Chey-
ney, A.M., Prof. Hist. Univ. of Pa.
" 2 Basis of American History, by
Livingston Farrand, M.D., Prof.
Anthropology^ Coliunbia Univ.
" 3 Spainin America, by Edward Gay-
lord Bourne, Ph.D., Prof. Hist.
Yale Univ.
** 4 England in America, by Lyon Gar-
diner Tyler, LL.D., President
William and Mary College.
" 5 Colonial Self - Government, by
Charles McLean Andrews, Ph.D.,
Prof. Hist. Johns Hopkins Univ.
Group II.
Transformation into a Nation
Vol. 6 Provincial America, by Evarts
Boutell Greene, Ph.D., Prof. Hist,
and Dean of College, Univ. of 111.
" 7 France in America, by Reuben
Gold Thwaites, LL.D., Sec. Wis-
consin State Hist. Soe.
Vol. 8 Preliminaries of the Revolution,
by George Elliott Howard, Ph.D.,
Prof, Hist. Univ. of Nebraska.
** 9 The American Revolution, by-
Claude Halstead Van Tyne, Ph.D.,
" lo The Confederation and the Consti-
tution, by Andrew Cunningham
McLaughlin, A.M., Head Prof.
Hist. Univ. of Chicago.
Development of the Nation
Vol. II The Federalist System, by John
Spencer Bassett, Ph.D., Prof.
Am. Hist. Smith College.
" 12 The Jeffersonian System, by Ed-
ward Channing, Ph.D., Prof. Hist.
Harvard Univ.
" 13 Rise of American Nationality, by
Kendric Charles Babcock, Ph.D.,
Pres. Univ. of Arizona.
'* 14 Rise of the New West, by Freder-
ick Jackson Turner, Ph.D., Prof.
Am. Hist. Univ. of Wisconsin.
*V 15 Jacksonian Democracy, by Will-
iam MacDonald, LL.D., Prof.
Hist. Brown Univ.
Group IV.
Trial op Nationality
Vol. 16 Slavery and Abolition, by Albert
Bushnell Hart, LL.D., Prof. Hist.
Harvard Univ.
Group III.
Vol. 17 Westward Extension, by George
Pierce Garrison, Ph.D., Prof.
Hist. Univ. of Texas.
*' 18 Parties and Slavery, by Theodore
Clarke Smith, Ph.D., Prof. Am.
Hist. Williams College.
*' 19 Causes of the Civil War, by Admiral
French Ensor Chadwick, U.S.N.,
recent Pres. of Naval War Col.
" 20 The Appeal to Arms, by James
Kendall Hosmer, LL.D., recent
Librarian Alinneapolis Pub. Lib.
" 21 Outcome of the Civil War, by
James Kendall Hosmer, LL.D., re-
cent Lib. Minneapolis Pub. Lib.
Group V.
National Expansion
Vol. 22 Reconstruction, Political and Eco-
nomic, by William Archibald Dun-
ning, Ph.D., Prof. Hist, and Pohti-
cal Philosoph}^ Columbia Univ.
" 23 National Development, bv Edwin
Erie Sparks, Ph.D., Prof. Hist.
Univ. of Chicago.
" 24 National Problems, by Davis R.
Dewey, Ph.D., Professor of Eco-
nomics, Mass. Inst, of Technology.
" 25 America the World Power, by
John H. Latane, Ph.D., Prof.
Hist. Washington and Lee Univ.
" 26 Ideals of American Government,
by Albert Bushnell Hart, LL.D.,
Prof. Hist. Har^'ard Univ.
*' 27 Index to the Series, by David
May dole Matteson, A.M., Harvard
College Library.
COMMITTEES APPOINTED TO ADVISE AND
CONSULT WITH THE EDITOR
The Massachusetts Historical Society
Charles Francis Adams, LL.D., President
Samuel A. Green, M.D., Vice-President
James Ford Rhodes, LL.D., 2d Vice-President
Edward Channing, Ph.D., Prof. History Harvard
Univ.
Worthington C. Ford, Chief of Division of MSS.
Library of Congress
The Wisconsin Historical Society
Reuben G. Thwaites, LL.D., Secretary and Super-
intendent
Frederick J. Turner, Ph.D., Prof, of American His-
tory Wisconsin University
James D. Butler, LL.D., formerly Prof. Wisconsin
University
William W. Wight, President
Henry E. Legler, Curator
The Virginia Historical Society
William Gordon McCabe, Litt.D., President
Lyon G. Tyler, LL.D., Pres. of William and Mary
College
Judge David C. Richardson
J. A. C. Chandler, Professor Richmond College
Edward Wilson James
The Texas Historical Society
Judge John Henninger Reagan, President
George P. Garrison, Ph.D., Prof, of History Uni-
versity of Texas
Judge C. W. Raines
Judge Zachary T. Fullmore
ULYSSES S. GRANT
THE AMERICAN NATION : A HISTORY
VOLUME 21
OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR
1863-1865
BY
JAMES KENDALL HOSMER, LL.D.
RECENT LIBRARIAN OF THE MINNEAPOLIS PUBLIC LIBRARY
WITH MAPS
man inst
JUL I919I8
NEW YORK AND LONDON
HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
Copyright, 1907, by Harper & Brothers.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A5-\SS'
V. 7- 1
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
Editor's Introduction xi
Author's Preface xiii
I. Military Law and War Finance (1863) . 3
II. The Chickamauga Campaign (August, 1863-
September, 1863) 23
III. Chattanooga and Knoxville (September,
1863-December, 1863) 41
IV. Life in War-Time North and South (1863) 57
V. Concentration under Grant (December,
1863- April, 1864) 72
VI. On to Richmond (May, 1864- June, 1864) . . 86
VII. The Atlanta Campaign (May, 1864- August,
1864) 106
VIII. Attempts at Reconstruction (1863-1864) . 123
IX. Lincoln's Second Election (1864) .... 145
X. The Confederacy on the Sea (1861-1864) . 163
XI. Sheridan in the Valley (July, 1864-February,
1865) 186
XII. Sherman's March to the Sea (September,
1864- December, 1864) 201
XIII. Preparations for Readjustment of the
States (September, 1864-March, 1865) . 218
XIV. Military Severities (1864-1865) .... 232
X CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
XV. Spirit of the North (1864-1865) . . . 249
XVI. Spirit of the South (1864-1865) .... 269
XVII. Downfall of the Confederacy (April, 1865) 290
XVIII. Critical Essay on Authorities 307
MAPS
Seat of War in the West (1861-1865) (in
colors) facing 24
Chattanooga Campaign (1863) ro/o7'5) . . " 42
Seat of War in the East (1861-1865) (in
colors) " 74
Washington and Its Surroundings (1861-
1865) 88
Georgia Campaigns (1863-1864) " 108
Gulf Campaigns (i 863-1865) (in colors) . . " 168
Shenandoah Valley (1861-1865) " 188
Seat of War in the South (1861-1865) (in
colors) 204
Neighborhood of Richmond ** 292
i
i
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION
ALTHOUGH independent in field and arrange-
L ment, this volume is a continuation of the same
author's Appeal to Arms {American Nation, XX.),
taking up the story at the crisis of midsummer,
1863, and carrying it forward to the cessation of
hostilities in April, 1865. The political conditions
from which the war came about and the objects for
which the contest was waged are set forth in the
previous volume, and in greater detail in Chad-
wick, Causes of the Civil War {American Nation,
XIX.). The readjustment after the war is the
subject of Dunning, Reconstruction, Political and
Economic {American Nation, XXII.).
Interwoven with the narrative of military opera-
tions during 1863 are two chapters upon internal
conditions: chapter i. on military law and war
finance, and chapter iv. on life in war time. The
remarkable campaigns on the Tennessee River in the
second half of 1863 are described in chapters ii. and
iii. Chapters v. and vi. are devoted to the re-
organization of the eastern armies under Grant,
and the terrible Virginia campaign of 1864. In
chapter vii. the western campaign of that year is
xii
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION
followed out from Chattanooga to Atlanta. The
breathing space at the end of 1864, is utilized for
a narrative of attempts at reconstruction (chapter
vii.) and the presidential election of 1864 (chapter
ix.). In chapter x. the blockade and naval cam-
paigns during 1863 and 1864 are described. Chap-
ters xi. and xii. are devoted to Sheridan's valley
campaign and Sherman's march to the sea ; chapters
xiii. and xiv. to the renewal of plans of recon-
struction, and to the vexed question of military
severities both in the field and in the prisons.
Chapters xv. and xvi. describe the life and ex-
periences of non-combatants, North and South, in
the last stages of the war. In chapter xvii. the
last military campaigns appear. Chapter xviii.
upon authorities includes a serviceable account of
the official publications relating to the Civil War.
The purpose of the volimie is not only to describe
military movements and to characterize military
commanders, but also to picture the Civil War as a
national experience, in which public men, governing
bodies, and the whole people on both sides, were in-
tensely engaged. The war appears in its proper
setting, as a contest, not between armies or govern-
ments, but between two social systems made up at
bottom of the same kind of people, having the same
traditions, and capable of reconstitution into one
nation.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
AS the Civil War approaches its end, the in-
L terest deepens rather than diminishes. To the
student of the mihtary art much more is offered
worthy of attention than during the early period.
On the side of the North, by relentless sifting the
men come to the front who through natural en-
dowment and painful training are adequate to the
work to be done : on the side of the South the leaders,
though the same as at the beginning, exhibit a
developed power, and sway more absolutely the
men and the resources committed to their direction.
Campaigns, no longer ill-ordered and fortuitous,
become examples of practised soldiership; while
battles illustrate the struggle of opposing intellects,
and are no longer a mere exchange of blows.
As a drama, the Civil War takes on as it proceeds,
shadows new and ever gloomier. On both sides,
the devotedness of the generation concerned, the
sacrifice of comfort, of resources, of life, to what is
believed to be the public good, becomes always more
unusual and impressive. At last the combatants
are locked in a struggle so intense and desperate
that human strength and endurance can go no
xiv
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
further. Here are the elements of colossal, all-
absorbing tragedy.
For the most part, the battles described have
been studied on the fields where they took place;
the strategy of the generals, while traversing the
lines of movement of the contending armies. Much
has been gained from the stories of participants
North and South, in stations high and low ; while the
author's own recollections tend to make definite
the details of the picture. The present volume, like
its predecessor, has been for the most part written
in the Library of Congress, at Washington, and I
desire to repeat here the acknowledgment of obliga-
tion already made to the accomplished staff of that
institution for their politeness and skilled assistance.
James K. Hosmer.
January lo, 1907.
OUTCOME OF
THE CIVIL WAR
OUTCOME OF
THE CIVIL WAR
CHAPTER I
MILITARY LAW AND WAR FINANCE
(1863)
IN 1863 "the Fourth of July became trebly famous —
no longer the nation's birthday merely, but the
day also when through the fall of Vicksburg and
the retreat of Lee from Gettysburg the preserva-
tion of the nation grew likely. It was, indeed, high
time that, for the well-being of the Union, such a
day should dawn. During the spring the signs
were very unfavorable ; that the war was likely soon
to take the North for its arena, as well as the South,
was plainly indicated. Every Federal disaster made
more numerous and more outspoken the advocates
of peace at any price. A bitter war of words broke
out, and in many places in the North seemed about
to pass into a war of weapons. Disaffection was
more acute and audacious in the West than in the
East, though not more deep-seated. Friends of the
South, looking on from Canada, believed a con-
4 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1863
federacy of the Northwest to be close at hand, which,
when formed, would be hostile to the Lincoln govern-
ment and ready to join hands with Jefferson Davis.
While in Indiana and Illinois the spirit of revolt
abotmded, its focus was in Ohio, where Clement
L. Vallandigham, a bold and fluent irreconcilable,
fomented the popular inflammation/ He had talked
in opposition in Congress with no uncertain sound;
on the stump he was still less restrained ; and when
Burnside, as commander of the department, issued
a certain "Order No. 38," which in terms imusual-
ly plain forbade treasonable utterances, Vallandig-
ham burst out with exceeding vehemence. On
May I, at Mount Vernon, in southern Ohio, a mass-
meeting was held, the character of w^hich was not
concealed. The head of the Goddess of Liberty on
the old-fashioned copper cent was cut out, and dis-
played generally as a badge upon the coat-lapel —
a ''copper-head." Many speakers of note were
heard, among them vSamuel S. Cox (better known
as "Sunset" Cox), a man of brilliant gifts; but the
voice of most authority was that of Vallandigham,
who passed all previous bounds. Within a few feet
of him stood officers of Burnside, in civilian dress,
noting down the orator's sentences. He said "that
it was not the intention of those in power to effect
a restoration of the Union; that the government
had rejected every overture of peace from the South,
* See A7n. Annual Cyclop., 1863, art. Habeas Corpus, for a
good digest of contemporary accounts.
1863] MILITARY LAW AND FINANCE 5
and every proposition of mediation from Europe;
that the war was for the liberation of the blacks
and the enslavement of the whites; that General
Order No. 38 was a base usurpation of arbitrary
power; that he despised it and spat upon it, and
trampled it under his feet; that people did not de-
serve to be freemen who would submit to the
conscription law. He called the president ''King
Lincoln," and advised that at the ballot-box he
should be ''hurled from his throne." Among the
cheers that followed, some one shouted that ''Jeff
Davis was a gentleman, which was more than Lin-
coln was."
A few days later, a company of soldiers took Val-
landigham out of bed at his home in Dayton,
Ohio, and conveyed him to Cincinnati, where forth-
with was held a court-martial, presided over by
General Robert B. Potter. No part of American
liberty has been more jealously regarded than free-
dom of speech ; had it come to such a pass in America
that a man could no longer say what he chose ? And
if called to account, was it proper that the orator
delivering his criticism in a part of the country not
the seat of war should be seized by soldiers and
tried by a court-martial? Justification for Burn-
side's proceeding might be sought in Lincoln's
proclamation of September 24, 1862, which de-
clared that "During the existing insurrection, and
as a necessary measure to suppressing the same, all
rebels and insurgents, their aiders and abettors,
6 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1863
within the United States, and all persons discour-
aging voluntary enlistments, resisting militia drafts,
or guilty of any disloyal practice affording aid and
comfort to rebels against the authority of the United
States, shall be subject to martial law, and liable
to trial and punishment by courts martial, or mili-
tary commissions." ^
This was certainly very definite; but the presi-
dent's right to issue such a proclamation was grave-
ly questioned, in particular by B. R. Curtis, who
had been justice of the Supreme Court ;^ moreover,
it had been superseded by an act of Congress of
March 3, 1863, signed by the president, according
to which the proceeding of Burnside was quite too
summary.^ Conceding that the arrest of Vallan-
digham was permissible (certainly in the arbitrary
arrests which had taken place there was abundant
precedent), the statute of March 3, 1863, made it
necessary that the secretary of war should report
the arrest to the Federal judge of that district; and
if the grand jury found no indictment against him
as giving aid and comfort to the enemy, the dis-
charge of the prisoner was proper. In fact, the
act of Burnside was an overstepping of his powers,
which the administration should have discounte-
nanced. In this crisis Lincoln showed vacillation.
When, a few weeks later, Burnside suppressed the
* Lincoln, Works (ed. of 1894), II., 239.
^B. R. Curtis, Jr., Life and Writings of B.R. Curtis, II., 306
et seq. ^ U. S. Statutes at Large, XII., 755.
1863] MILITARY LAW AND FINANCE 7
Chicago Times, for an offence similar to that of
Vallandigham's, the president, under the pressure of
such good friends of his as Lyman Trumbull and
Isaac N. Arnold, and others, discountenanced the
proceeding. The trial of Vallandigham, May 11,
1863, was after Chancellor sville and before Gettys-
burg and Vicksburg, when the Union cause seemed
on the verge of ruin ; and the mistaken prosecution
appeared about to precipitate a catastrophe.
At the court-martial, Vallandigham denied the
right of such a court to judge him, since he was a
member neither of the army nor navy. He pro-
duced witnesses, among them ''Sunset" Cox, who
testified that he had said nothing treasonable,
though criticising the government severely. Un-
successful application for a writ of habeas corpus
was made to Federal Judge H. H. Leavitt, a War
Democrat, an appointee of Andrew Jackson. The
prisoner was duly found guilty and condemned to
Fort Warren, a sentence which Lincoln commuted
to banishment beyond the Federal lines into the
Confederacy.^
To the sorrow over Fredericksburg and the new
occasion for lamentation from Chancellorsville was
now added such a cry of indignation at the alleged
infringement of constitutional liberty that the tu-
mult became appalling. In every quarter the peace
party mustered so formidably that to make head
^ For a discussion of the legal and constitutional aspects, see
Rhodes, United States, IV., 245 et seq.
8 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1863
against it began to seem desperate. Mass-meetings
poured out wrath in every part of the North; of
especial note, among such demonstrations, were a
series of conventions, one in Ohio, held June 11,
by the friends of Vallandigham ; one at Spring-
field, Illinois, the president's home; and one at
Albany, New York, the ruling spirit of which was
Governor Horatio Seymour. Of the three, proba-
bly the latter was the demonstration most threat-
ening to the administration. Through dignity of
character and high social position, the influence of
Seymour was powerful. Lincoln had tried to win
him over, but an interesting correspondence was the
only result. The governor stood, with all whom he
could sway, in angry opposition. Nor was the rage
of the malcontents expressed in words alone. Val-
landigham, who soon escaped from the South on
a blockade-runner, and appeared at Niagara Falls,
within a short distance of his constituents, was
nominated by acclamation for governor by the
peace party of Ohio,^ who pushed the canvass with
great vigor.
The enrolment and conscription act of March 3,
1863,^ the execution of which was pressed by Gen-
eral James B. Fry, provost - marshal - general, met
with wide disfavor. Forced enlistments seemed con-
trary to the spirit of American institutions. A pro-
vision intended to mitigate the situation, whereby on
^ Am. Anntial Cyclop., 1863, ^rt. Ohio.
2 U. S. Statutes at Large, XII., 731.
i863] MILITARY LAW AND FINANCE
payment of three hundred dollars a man drafted might
purchase exemption, was interpreted to be a shielding
of the rich, while the poor were left to suffer. The
draft was met by scowls, which in many places de-
veloped into armed resistance. In particular, there
began in the city of New York, July ii, 1863, ^
which exceeded in violence anything of the kind ever
known in America. For several days the city was
in the hands of a mob, who burned, pillaged, and
murdered to an extent that suggested the excesses
of the French Revolution. In the height of the
trouble the conduct of prominent Democrats was dis-
couraging and ominous. Archbishop Hughes seem-
ed disposed to palliate the outrages, while Governor
Seymour addressed a ttimultuous assembly as his
''friends." It was then asserted by Seymour that
as many as a thousand lives, all told, were lost, an
overestimate, possibly; but the number was large
— unresisting negroes, men, women, and children,
being especial objects of attack.^
Success came to the Federal arms in the nick of
time. The New York riots occurred within less
than a week of the fall of Port Hudson, which opened
the Mississippi; Lee still stood threatening north of
the Potomac; but great victories had been won,
and were powerful in changing the face of things. A
demonstration from troops, fvirloughed after Gettys-
burg, sufficed to put down the New York mob,
though only by stern fightitig. In Ohio, John
^ Am. Annual Cyclop., 1863, p. 811 et seq.
OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1863
Brou^h, a sturdy War Democrat, took the field
against Vallandigham, who in due time was
"snowed under" by a majority of 101,000. New
York also went Republican. In Pennsylvania,
Andrew G. Curtin was triumphantly sustained; far
and wide Union men plucked up heart and rallied
about the administration.^
In all this crisis nothing is better worth noting
than the bearing of Lincoln. If he tripped, it was
only for a moment; he was intrepid, good-natured,
ready with a reply in every emergency, and judged
each case with sense and strength. He had mis-
givings as to Burnside's course with Vallandigham ;
but he stood by his agent, and parried the remon-
strances as they came with tact and logic. "Must
I shoot a simple-minded soldier-boy who deserts,
while I must not touch a hair of a wily agitator
who induces him to desert? This is not the less
injurious when effected by getting a father, brother,
or friend into a public meeting, and there working
upon his feelings until he is persuaded to write
the soldier-boy that he is fighting in a bad cause
for a wicked administration of a contemptible gov-
ernment, too weak to arrest and punish him if he
shall desert. I think that in such a case to silence
the agitator and save the boy is not only constitu-
tional, but, withal, a great mercy."
Stating his conviction that arbitrary measures,
under ordinary circumstances harsh or unconstitu-
* Am. Annual Cyclop., arts. Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, etc.
1863] MILITARY LAW AND FINANCE 11
tional, may be justified in the stress of a rebellion
or invasion, the president scouts the idea that the
people may become indifferent to arbitrary meas-
ures or perverted into a preference for such a polity.
He cannot believe it, ''any more than I am able to
believe that a man could contract so strong a taste
for emetics during a temporary illness, as to insist
upon feeding upon them during the remainder of
his healthful life." '
Lincoln's frank admission to the Albany remon-
strants is interesting: "And yet let me say that
in my own discretion I do not know whether I
would have ordered the arrest of Mr. Vallandigham.
While I cannot shift the responsibility from myself,
I hold that as a general rule, the commander in the
field is the better judge of the necessity in any par-
ticular case. ... It gave me pain when I learned that
Mr. Vallandigham had been arrested ; . . . and it will
afford me great pleasure to discharge him as soon as
I can by any means believe the public safety will *
not suffer by it. . . . Still I must continue to do so
much as may seem to be required by the public
safety. "2
By way of counter-stroke to the earlier Copper-
head mass-meeting at Springfield, Illinois, the sup-
porters of the administration gathered at the same
place, at the beginning of September, in still greater
numbers. Lincoln was urged to be present, and
might have effected much by his presence. In our
^ Lincoln, Works (ed. of 1894), II., 349-351. ^ Ibid., 351.
OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1863
day, when the rear platform of the special train has
become such a fulcrum of influence, and the presi-
dent can place himself in distant New Orleans,
Chicago, or San Francisco, while scarcely taking his
hand from the Washington helm, an oratorical jour-
ney to Springfield w^ould be easy. In 1863 "the presi-
dent felt that he could not leave his post. He
wrote a letter, however, August 26, which perhaps
did as well as a speech. It was an arrow shaped
with beauty and grace, the finish of the shaft, how-
ever, not interfering with the keenness of the point
or its unerring aim. One passage runs: ''The signs
look better. The Father of Waters again goes un-
vexed to the sea. Thanks to the great North-
west for it. Nor yet wholly to them. Three hun-
dred miles up they met New England, Empire, Key-
stone, and Jersey, hewing their way right and left.
The sunny South too, in more colors than one, also
lent a hand. On the spot their history was jotted
down in black and white. The job was a great
national one, and let none be banned who bore an
honorable part in it. . . . Nor must Uncle Sam's web-
feet be forgotten. At all the watery margins they
have been present. Thanks to all. For the great
Republic, for the principle it lives by and keeps alive,
for man's vast future, — thanks for all! Peace does
not appear so distant as it did. I hope it will come
soon, and come to stay. And there will be some
black men w^ho can remember that with silent
tongue^ clenched teeth, steady eye and well-poised
1 863] MILITARY LAW AND FINANCE 13
bayonet, they have helped mankind on to this great
consiimmation ; while I fear there will be some white
ones tmable to forget that with malignant heart
and deceitful speech they strove to hinder it." ^
The signs looked better, as Lincoln said. The
North was growing to the weight of sword and shield
in the enemy's front, and learning also to manage
the financial burden, good care of which was as
necessary to successful warfare as first-rate soldier-
ship. To be sure, there was a perilous prevalence
of the greenback. The irredeemable paper money
which Chase had so reluctantly brought himself to
favor, and which all wise men, following our better
traditions, had looked upon with misgivings, came
in like a flood ; but it was a device which men thought
inevitable in a great crisis. The act of February
25, 1862, authorizing the issue of $150,000,000, was
followed by acts of July 11, 1862, and of March 3,
1863, each act authorizing large amounts.^ Dur-
ing the years of war there were outstanding, of legal-
tenders, in 1861-1862, $96,620,000; in 1862-1863,
$387,644,000; in 1863-1864, $431,179,000; in 1864-
1865, $432,687,000. It should always be remembered
to Chase's credit that he put forth this issue with
hesitation, and that later, when chief-justice, he
confessed he had committed an error. ^
^ Lincoln, Works (ed. of 1894), II., 398.
2 U. S. Statutes at Large, XII., 345, 532, 710.
3 Hart, Chase, 436; cf. Hosmer, Appeal to Arms {Am. Nation,
XX.), 64, 167, 249; see also 12 Wallace, 576.
14 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1863
While paper mone^T- thus worked balefully, other
financial expedients which the enterprising secre-
tary^ and Congress had set on foot by the summer
and fall of 1863 began to make impression. First,
by an act approved March 3, 1863, "the treasury
had been authorized to contract loans of much
greater volume than heretofore. Upon the second
great loan, authorized February 25, 1862, for $500,-
000,000, Chase secured two limitations which proved
harmful — namely, that the interest should be only
six per cent, and should be payable in gold; with
interest so low the bonds would not sell at par on a
specie basis ; the price of his bonds was depressed to
par in greenbacks, the fact that legal-tenders were
convertible into bonds also having an influence.
As regards the loan of March 3, 1863, Chase was
not able to borrow anything like the amount author-
ized, but his work was successful and beneficent.*
With the help of Jay Cooke & Co., he invited sub-
scriptions in all quarters and from all classes, the
securities being of such denominations that people
of small means could take them, as well as capi-
talists. These were rapidly accepted, "coupon-
bonds" becoming not only a hoard in every great
financial institution, but a familiar possession in
many households. An immense sum presently
passed into this form of wealth, the favorite se-
curities being the "five- twenties," the bonds whose
holders could enforce their redemption in twenty
* Hart, Chase, 243, 288.
1 863] MILITARY LAW AND FINANCE 15
years, while the government could, if it chose,
pay them after five years, the bonds meantime
yielding an interest of six per cent, in gold, pay-
able semiannually. Within two months after the
adjournment of Congress, on March 3, 1863, the
great deficit which had confronted it the preced-
ing December quite disappeared. The soldiers were
paid, and all necessary requisitions satisfied. More
important than an3rthing else, since the people thus
showed their confidence in the triumph of the Union,
and gave up their savings to its keeping, they proved
their determination to sink or swim with it, commit-
ting themselves to its fortunes as never before.
The second vital financial measure, for direct
taxation and internal revenue,^ entered upon with
many fears because counter to cherished Ameri-
can traditions, was received with few murmurs and
soon yielded a large sum. George S. Bout well, of
Massachusetts, was made commissioner. The act
was several times amended, and its operation at
first was somewhat embarrassed, but its success
increased year by year till, in 1866, the yield from
this source was nearly three hundred and eleven
millions. The country was divided into districts,
corresponding generally with the congressional dis-
tricts, in each of which were appointed an assessor
and collector armed with adequate power for in-
spection and seizure. From domestic manufactures
and productions, especially distilled spirits and fer-
* Act of July I, 1862, U. S. Statutes at Large, XII., 432.
i6 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1863
mented liquors, came the largest revenue. Tobacco
was heavily taxed, but wool and cotton fabrics,
boots and shoes, hardware, petroleum, everything
into or over which passes human handiwork, paid
its proportion. The well-to-do were assessed on
their incomes; professions and branches of business
in general could not be carried on without a license ;
and no formal paper — contract, receipt, check, or
proprietary label — was valid without a stamp. ^ The
country soon adapted itself good-naturedly to the
situation, and among the perplexed shapers of the
government policy the regret was general that the
result could not have been foreseen and direct tax-
ation applied more fully to the exigency rather than
the irredeemable paper.
The third great gain to our financial well-being
was a measure which, in the summer and fall of 1863,
began first to find favor, though proposed by Chase
in his first formal report as secretary of the treasury.
This scheme, for a time neglected, but finally accept-
ed, created a system of national banks. The popular
loans and heavy taxes were temporary expedients;
but the national-bank system was destined to super-
sede the old state banks, affording to the United
States a system uniform, cheap, convenient, and
as stable as the government itself. For this great
achievement the credit belongs mainly to Chase,^
and may be regarded as the supreme service he ren-
* Schouler, United States, VI., 386.
2 Hart, Chase, 274 et seq.
1 863] MILITARY LAW AND FINANCE
dered to his country. During the winter session of
1 862-1 863 the plan was freely debated, Eldridge G.
Spaulding and Samuel Hooper, in the House, and
John Sherman, in the Senate, sustaining the secre-
tary's recommendation. February 25, 1863, the bill
became a law, passing the Senate by a bare majority
of two, and almost as narrowly escaping defeat in
the House. ^ Lincoln signed it gladly, and it went
into operation forthwith, receiving later amend-'
ments as experience showed them necessary. The
act provided for the charter of national banks under
the supervision of a new officer of the treasury, the
comptroller. One-third of their capital must be in
United States bonds; and against the deposit of
bonds in the treasury, as a reserve, the comptroller
prepared for each bank circulating notes to the
amount of nine-tenths of the deposit. By an act of
1865, on recommendation of Secretary Fessenden, a
tax of ten per cent, was levied on the circulation of
state banks, so that many of them hastened to
put themselves under the national arrangement.^
The benefits of the scheme to the country have been
immense. In 1861 there were over sixteen hundred
state banks, scattered ever3rwhere, varying infi-
nitely as to solvency and as to wisdom of manage-
ment.^ While the banks of New York and New
* U. S. Statutes at Large, XII., 665; John Sherman, RecolleC'
tions, 231; Blaine, Twenty Years, I., 478.
2 Dewey, Financial Hist, of the U. S., 328.
3 Blaine, Twenty Years, I., 645.
VOL. XXI. — 2
i8 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1863
England in good part maintained high credit, and
some western states had legislated wisely, many
banks were "wild-cat," practically unwatched in
their transactions, and unpunished if they swindled.
Bank-bills varied infinitely, and no expert was skil-
ful enough to detect counterfeits. High rates of
exchange prevailed, bills rarely passing at par ex-
cept in their own locality. The confusion and loss
were grave.
The new system brought order and security in
money matters; but beyond that it knit the people
to the government by a strong tie. The loans of
currency to the banks from the treasury were part
of the national indebtedness; hence every citizen
became vitally concerned in the security and wel-
fare of the Union. While in 1863 but sixty-six
national banks were organized, the number rapidly
grew. In 1864 there were five hundred and eight;
a year later one thousand five hundred and seventy-
three;^ nor would it be possible to say, after forty
years, to how large an extent the progress and wel-
fare of the country has been due to this sagacious
innovation.
While in the North there was a peace party, some-
times very vigorous, the South showed no toleration
of any party or individual who opposed the war.
W^here such opposition was manifested, as in eastern
Tennessee, it was straightway met by force of arms,
the offenders being regarded no less as enemies than
^ Blaine, Twenty Years, I., 644.
1 863] MILITARY LAW AND FINANCE
those who came from the North. As to finance, in
the early part of 1863 the southern leaders had no
anxiety about the outcome: their victories were
overwhelming; intervention seemed certain; at the
breaking of the blockade, which could not be far
off, their accumulations of cotton, transferred to the
French and English mills, so long idle, would at once
make the Confederacy rich. To anticipate this pros-
perity, before the first year of the war had ended
the government was irretrievably committed to a
paper-money policy.^
As to Confederate taxation, some money came
in through the small customs duties. During 1863
a tithe of the agricultural products was exacted,
which for a time yielded much, a month's supply of
food for a million men coming in ; but it was every-
where unpopular, and in North Carolina was rebelled,
against. April 24, 1863, was passed the Internal
Revenue Act of the Confederacy, from which, by
the end of 1864, about five million dollars in specie
value was obtained, apparently all a tax "in kind." ^
Nor was there any large resort to bonds. In
January, 1863, Emil Erlanger, a European financier,
appeared in Richmond to negotiate a loan of fifteen
million dollars, to be placed abroad.^ It was au-
thorized January 29, and proved successful to all
but the unhappy subscribers. It was taken up
^ Schwab, Confederate States, chap. ii.
^ Ibid., 291 et seq.; for act, see C. S. A. Statutes at Large, i
Cong., 3 Sess., 115. ^ Ibid., 30 et seq.
OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1863
at 90, in great part in England. Erlanger & Co.
made out of it a handsome sum; the Confederacy
received about six milHon dollars, which was mostly
spent in Europe; the subscribers lost ten million
dollars, the bonds sinking ever lower after the Union
victories, military and diplomatic, to final worth-
lessness. Professor Schwab believes this sum de-
rived from the Erlanger loan, with fifteen million
dollars derived from an earlier loan, taken by the
southern banks, and the proceeds of seizures of
United States funds and the customs duties, about
five million five hundred thousand dollars (perhaps
twenty-seven million dollars in all) , to have been the
entire amount of specie in the hands of the Rich-
mond government during the war.^
The Confederacy was practically supported by
paper money and from the proceeds of bonds
purchased with paper money and paying interest in
scrip. The people preferred notes to bonds, because
the former circulated. Before the end of 1863,
seven hundred million dollars in notes was in circu-
lation, which sum in 1864 became a billion and
more. Possibly the treasury itself had no definite
knowledge of the amount afloat.^ States, cities,
banks — indeed, tradesmen, tobacconists, grocers,
barbers — issued notes, these a fractional currency
largely. February 17, 1864, the Confederate con-
gress passed an act virtually repudiating earlier is-
^ Schwab, Confederate States, 43.
2 Rhodes, United States, V., 344.
1863] MILITARY LAW AND FINANCE 21
sues of paper money. A scheme of compulsory
funding was put in operation, recalling expedients
of the American and French revolutions ; holders of
notes might exchange them for four-per-cent. bonds ;
an alternative for exchange into bonds was to re-
ceive new notes at a ratio of two to three; if the
holder took neither the bonds nor the new notes, he
must lose heavily, for by a provision of the act the
old notes were to be taxed out of existence/
A vivid picture of the ''Time when Money was
Easy" is given by George Gary Eggleston; the ir-
redeemable paper fell ever lower, until it became
scarcely an exaggeration to say that the house-
holder must take his money to market in his basket
and bring his purchases home in his pocket-book.^
The funding act was a confession of bankruptcy on
the part of the government. The resource of the
produce loan was exhausted before the beginning of
1863. United States money became readily cur-
rent, an incident so ominous that, February 6, 1864,
an act was passed to prohibit its circulation.^ Re-
course was had to barter; and at the end of 1864
Kirby Smith wrote that only specie payments or
barter prevailed in business in the trans-Mississippi.^
The evidence is conclusive, remarks Schwab, ''that
^ C. S. A. Statutes at Large, i Cong., 4 Sess., 205; cf. Schwab,
Confederate States, 64.
^ Eggleston, A Rebel's Recollections, chap. iv.
^ C. S. A. Statutes at Large, i Cong., 4 Sess., 183; also Schwab,
Confederate States, 161.
* Rhodes, United States, V., 347.
OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1863
at last public expenses were met, like those of a
bankrupt corporation, by creating a huge floating
debt represented by large arrears, four or five hun-
dred million in the war department, and accimiu-
lated unpaid warrants in the Treasury."^
* Schwab, Confederate States, 83.
CHAPTER II
THE CHICKAMAUGA CAMPAIGN
(August, i863-September, 1863)
THE over - sanguine, who imagined after Vicks-
burg and Gettysburg that the South would now
submit and that peace was in sight, were soon unde-
ceived. From various parts of the wide arena came
signs that the spirit of resistance was unbroken
and the habit of victory not yet lost. During the
closing acts of the Mississippi and Pennsylvania
dramas, John H. Morgan, the bold raider, making
his way with twenty-five hundred men from Ten-
nessee through Kentucky, crossed the Ohio at
Brandenburg, and entered upon a terrifying in-
vasion of Indiana and Ohio. There were no trained
troops at hand to oppose him; he passed rapidly
from village to village, despatching companies right
and left to create uncertainty as to his movements,
replacing his horses as they gave out with fresh
ones seized within the country, and taking booty
as he chose in the well-to-do communities which
he traversed. His troopers galloped long unhanned,
the expedition apparently being a glorious "lark"
for the youths who for the most part made up the
OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1863
force.* But when, passing through the northern
suburbs of Cincinnati, they pressed eastward, their
career became disastrous. Had Lee carried Ceme-
tery Hill, things, no doubt, would have been different
with them ; as it was, towards the end of July most
of them were captured on the upper Ohio and con-
signed, with their leader, to Federal prisons.^
A much graver affair than this brisk and futile
adventure was the renewed attempt of the navy, in
the same month, to reduce Charleston. After the
failure in April, General Quincy A. Gillmore succeed-
ed to the place of Hunter, and Admiral Dahlgren to
that of Dupont. Both new commanders were brave
and capable men, the former an engineer of marked
ability. Nevertheless, their efforts were no more
successful than those of their predecessors; Beaure-
gard was still at hand, and his defence was as suc-
cessful as before.^ July 18 an assault on Fort
Wagner, on Morris Island, a low-lying waste of sand
at the mouth of the harbor, was beaten back, a
pathetic incident of the event being the decimation,
at the head of the charging column, of the Fifty-
fourth Massachusetts, colored, the high-souled young
colonel, Robert G. Shaw, falling at the front. The
"swamp-angel," a powerful cannon planted with
much skill in a morass, hurled its balls five miles
into the streets of Charleston; and converging bat-
* Duke, Morgan's Cavalry, 437.
^War Records, Serial No. 34, pp. 632-817 (Morgan's Ohio
Raid). ^ Roman, Beauregard, chap, xxxij.
CHICKAMAUGA
25
teries from ship and shore reduced Fort Sumter to
a heap of ruins. Neither city nor fortress fell be-
fore the assailants, however, until the last days of
the war/
Towards Tennessee, as the summer closed, all eyes
began to turn. While the armies on the Missis-
sippi and Potomac, w^est and east, were struggling
so memorably, Rosecrans in the centre, with the
Army of the Cimiberland, was lying inactive at Mur-
freesboro. Though nearly six months had passed
since Stone's River, no blow had been dealt. Rose-
crans, whom Cox saw in April, 1861, quarrelling
at Camp Dennison over the flooring of the tents, ^
though now a man of note, preserved the same char-
acteristics. Though full of amiable traits, his short-
comings were marked,^ none more so than a quick-
ness of temper that burst out on occasions both
slight and grave. He was constantly WTangling
with Lincoln, Stanton, and Halleck. To their ur-
gency that he should be active, he always com-
plained that something was wrong that should be
righted at Washington. If left to himself, he very
probably would have struck during the spring; but
under pressure he braced himself the other w^ay,
and lay idle even when his own judgment would
have led him to act. Towards those below him his
testiness, even to his generals, was equally manifest.
* War Records, Serial No. 46 (Operations at Charleston, June
to December, 1863).
2 Cox, Military Reminiscences, I., 24. ^ Ibid., 513.
26 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1863
A tentful of privates with their candles alight after
taps would hear the fiat of the general's sword on
the canvas in token of displeasure, an exhibition
which made him sometimes the victim of practical
jokes. ^ Nevertheless, from Lincoln down through
the rank and file, Rosecrans brought out affection,
and none doubted that he was, in spite of his fail-
ings, a brave and able leader.
The stress at Vicksburg having caused Johnston
to draw off a strong detachment from Bragg, that
he might make head against Grant, a fine chance
was offered Rosecrans to strike a blow at his weak-
ened adversary. He started out, June 24, 1863,
responding at last to the urgency from Washington,
yet still protesting; but the campaign upon which
he entered was conducted with the most satisfactory
energy and skill. The weather, which through the
spring and early summer had been favorable, changed
to storms, through which Rosecrans drove on in his
movements unremittingly. Feinting with his left
while striking with his right, with faultless strategy
he forced Bragg out of southern and central Ten-
nessee, without a battle, bringing to naught the
long labors by which Bragg had constructed at and
near Tullahoma a series of strongholds.^
Chattanooga now lay not far off, the door into
east Tennessee, which Lincoln was so eager to re-
' Cox, Military Reminiscences, I., 127.
2 War Records, Serial No. 34, pp. 399-627 (Tullahoma Cam-
paign).
i863]
CHICKAMAUGA
27
lieve, and also the point commanding, above all
others, the Confederate commtmications east, west,
and south. Would not Rosecrans follow up his
success by seizing Chattanooga? But here came
more weeks of inaction, of chronic dispute with
Washington — angry demands which Halleck began
to find intolerable; there must be more men, horses,
mules, supplies; communications must be made
secure; other departments must co-operate. Stan-
ton scrutinized keenly, sending a sharp-eyed agent,
Charles A. Dana, to report upon the spot; the pa-
tience of the president was sorely tried. But by
August 16 Rosecrans was again in motion, and so
effectively that some regard the resulting campaign
as the masterpiece of strategy during the Civil War.^
A disaster to the Confederacy scarcely less great
than those of July appeared imminent, to ward off
which the Richmond government brought to bear
all its resources.^
To study for a moment the situation, Burnside at
Cincinnati, after his work in quelling northern dis-
affection, was again assigned to the field, his especial
task being, with the so-called "Army of the Ohio,"
to advance through Cumberland Gap and capture
Knoxville, the citadel of east Tennessee; which he
accomplished, September 3, with no severe fighting.
* Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, VIII., 71; Cist, Army
of tlie Cumberland, 174.
^ War Records, Serial No. 50, pp. 3-107 1 (Chickamauga Cam-
paign).
28 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1863
From here Burnside was expected to reach a hand
to Rosecrans, in the midst of the remarkable move-
ment against Chattanooga. From Tullahoma, his
conquest of June, and the posts adjacent, Rosecrans
had pushed through the barrier of the Cumberland
Mountains, and stood .with his three corps, the
Fourteenth, Thomas; the Twentieth, McCook; and
the Twenty-first, Crittenden — not far from the Ten-
nessee, a broad and deep stream, across which all
bridges had been destroyed, protecting Chattanooga,
where stood Bragg strongly fortified.
Like Rosecrans, Bragg, though unquestionably
meritorious, had, as time went on, hardly made good
his title to a high command. Fremantle, the in-
telligent British officer who traversed the Con-
federacy during the spring and early summer of
1863, portrays him as thin, sallow-faced, with
bushy eyebrows meeting in a tuft over the nose,
and keen, dark eyes.^ General Taylor's order at
Buena Vista: "A little more grape. Captain Bragg,"
had made his name more familiar, perhaps, before
the Civil War, than that of any other southern
leader; Davis held him in high regard; Johnston,
who after Murfreesboro had been charged to investi-
gate him, saw no reason for his removal ; ^ but he
had not at all won his subordinates — Polk, Hardee,
D. H. Hill, and now Longstreet — who held him to be
unequal to his place. Yet he was still retained, and
* Fremantle, Three Months in the Southern States, 145.
^Johnston, Narrative, 162.
CHICKAMAUGA
29
was now very active. There was some excuse for
his ill-success at Tullahoma, his army having been
seriously weakened by demands from Vicksburg ; but
now he was largely reinforced. Johnston sent back
the divisions that had not availed against Grant
and Sherman; Buckner came down from Knox-
ville after that city was lost; most important of all,
Longstreet set out from Virginia with the troops
who, on Lee's right at Gettysburg, had so nearly
carried the Round Tops, and, though not yet at
hand, arrived in time. It was a great loss to Bragg
that Hardee had been sent farther south, the de-
fence of Mobile, which Grant appeared to threaten,
requiring a capable officer. But the Confederacy
had no better soldiers than remained to Bragg, and
the front w^hich Rosecrans had to face was very
formidable.
The Federal beginning was brilliant.* It was
natural for Bragg to think that Rosecrans would
try first to connect with Burnside, strengthened by
whom his power of offence would be greatly in-
creased. The eyes of Bragg, therefore, were turned
especially towards the northeast, over the region in
which the junction could most conveniently take
place, a region, too, presenting few difficulties to
marching armies. This idea Rosecrans encouraged,
despatching the Twenty-first Corps with much pa-
rade in that direction, up the Sequatchie Valley.
But meantime, with Thomas and McCook, the Four-
^ Battles and Leaders, III., 638 et seq.
OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1863
teenth and the Twentieth Corps, he crossed the river
farther down unopposed, striking out at once tow-
ards Bragg's communications with Atlanta. To
hold these unbroken was a vital matter to the Con-
federates : the loss of Knoxville interrupted the rail-
road line to Richmond and Virginia, and no route
remained but a roundabout line via Charleston and
Columbia, and through Georgia to Chattanooga.
Thomas and McCook were now in a difficult country-
crossed by mountain ranges over which the roads
were few, poor, and quite unmapped. Nevertheless,
they made such progress that Bragg, in alarm, for-
sook his fastness, marching quickly southward in
a movement rashly interpreted to mean retreat;
whereupon Crittenden, with the Twenty-first Corps,
promptly crossed the Tennessee from the northern
side and occupied Chattanooga on September 9.
This was a great and bloodless conquest, and as a
piece of strategic work probably deserves all the
praise it has received,
Bragg was still further to be reckoned with. Full
of the idea that his adversary was retreating, Rose-
crans pushed Thomas and McCook through the
mountains, hoping to strike his flank on the march
southward or make hot pursuit on his rear. McCook
went too far ; or, at all events, the three Federal corps
became dangerously separated, an interval of three
difficult marches cutting off the Fourteenth Corps in
the centre from the Twentieth and Twenty-first on
either wing. In this situation it suddenly became
CHICKAMAUGA
31
known to Rosecrans that Bragg was not in retreat,
but had retired a short distance for a purpose, and
was ready at Chickamauga to try conclusions. Had
Bragg been a great commander, he might at this
moment have brought things to a finish. While
his own force, largely increased, was well in hand,
the Federal army was badly scattered, and the three
corps might have been destroyed one by one. This
time fortune favored Rosecrans, for Bragg did not
strike. In the respite the hard-marching Federals
concentrated through a pass, Rossville Gap, over
which ran the high-road from Chattanooga to
Lafayette, and by September 18 stood backed by
Missionary Ridge. In front of the Federal corps,
after a broad interval of level, flowed Chickamauga
Creek, in the woods behind which was now gathered
the army of Bragg.
McLemore's Cove, in which the hosts were as-
sembled, was a remote and secluded spot. It had
been reached through difficult mountain -passes in
regions sparsely inhabited; rock and forest every-
where prevailed, with now and then a settler's clear-
ing. In the cove along the dark stream, bearing
from some prehistoric slaughter the name Chicka-
mauga, "river of death," broad meadows intervened
between the ranges, which here and there had been
taken up in f anus ; while on the stream was now and
then a mill. These obscure and distant farms of
Snodgrass, McAfee, Dyer, Kelly, the Widow Glenn,
and Lee and Gordon's mills, lying in the September
32 OUTCOME OP THE CIVIL WAR [1863
sunlight, were about to be lifted into a lurid noto-
riety. Of the Union army, about fifty-eight thou-
sand strong, Thomas, with the Fourteenth Corps, oc-
cupied the left; McCook, with the Twentieth, the
right; Crittenden holding the Twenty -first in re-
serve. The army of Bragg, amounting before the
battle ended to about sixty-six thousand,^ had, at
the right, Polk; the left as yet awaited its leader.
Bragg, full of vigor, but impatient and unsyste-
matic, seized the initiative, his aim being to drive
back the Federal left, and, capturing Rossville Gap,
to cut Rosecrans off from Chattanooga. September
19 was throughout a day of fierce encounters, di-
visions from either side clashing with alternations
of fortune. Nothing was decided; but at night
Bragg had made no substantial progress. The
strengthened Union left held its own; and Polk,
who directed the Confederate assaults, found him-
self no nearer Rossville Gap than before. Yet the
Federals well understood that the fighting of the
day was but a preparation for a greater contest.
That night Bragg received a reinforcement of
value scarcely calculable, in the arrival of Long-
street from Virginia, by rail over the long circuit
through the Carolinas and Georgia. Longstreet, for-
saking the train, was at once on horseback, riding
under the "quartering moon" through the wood-
roads to find Bragg and bring the weight of his
corps to bear upon the situation. Hurrying thus,
* Livermore, Numbers and Losses, 105.
CHICKAMAUGA
33
he rode suddenly into a Federal outpost, escaping
only by adroit management.* Bragg was found at
last, and the dispositions for the morrow made.
The right was again confided to Polk, who was ex-
pected to renew his attacks on the Federal left in
the early morning. The left now received its leader
in Longstreet, whose divisions were to wait until,
by the gradual wheel of the Confederate line towards
the west and south which Bragg hoped for, the con-
venient moment should arrive for an onset.
In the Federal camp neither alacrity nor vigil-
ance was wanting. As the cannon cooled after the
volleys of the 19th, Rosecrans gathered his gen-
erals in council at his headquarters at the Widow
Glenn's.^ Besides the corps commanders were some
nine or ten of lower rank. The most interesting
figure was Thomas, grave, undisturbed, deliberate,
with a poise like that of Washington. He had
borne through the day the brunt of Polk's assaults,
and was physically exhausted. He fell asleep every
minute, but when roused to give his opinion in-
variably answered, ''I would strengthen the left."
The mood of the participants was scarcely as grave
as at the council after the second day at Gettysburg.
Thus far there was nothing critical in the Federal
situation. At the close McCook was called upon for
a song, to which he responded with the "Hebrew
Maiden."
* Longstreet, Manassas to Appomattox, 438.
' Described by Dana in his Recollections, 113.
VOL. XXI. — 3
OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1863
At the dawn of September 20 Bragg was listening
eagerly for sounds from his right, where Polk was
expected to be at work betimes, and he subsequent-
ly brought accusations of neglect against that lieu-
tenant ; ^ but it is far easier to believe the statement
of Polk, that the conditions made an early move-
ment impossible. The forenoon was well advanced
when his line at last charged; and the divisions of
Breckinridge and Cleburne, directed by D. H. Hill,
thrown by the general-bishop upon Thomas, made
an unshrinking onslaught. Thomas had strength-
ened his front with the rude breastw^orks of earth,
tree-trunks, and rails which at this stage in the war
the soldiers of both armies had learned to throw up
in a few minutes. Rosecrans perhaps went too far
in following out Thomas's advice of the evening be-
fore, and in his hot way was depleting his right that
the left might be sustained; Crittenden, in reserve,
was practically stripped of his divisions, which were
hurried off to act under Thomas,^ and McCook's
line grew thin from the heavy drafts despatched to
the same point of attack. The forenoon was now
nearing its end, and nothing had gone wrong;
though the Federal right was dangerously w^eakened,
Bragg 's attack was firmly met ; from general to pri-
vate every man was on the alert. No one knew
what lay behind the screen of woods before the
Federal right wing, but probably under ordinary
^ War Records, Serial No. 51, pp. 33, 47.
^ Ibid., Serial No. 50, p. 607.
CHICKAMAUGA
35
circumstances Rosecrans could have successfully met
danger from that quarter. The division at the ex-
treme right was that of Sheridan, and the other
commanders were scarcely inferior; there were no
better men in the Union service.
Just here came the beginning of a disaster. The
student of military history will recall how, on Jtme
1 6, 1 815, the corps of D'Erlon, twenty thousand
men, by the mistake of an aide-de-camp, was sent
to w^ander aimlessly between Ouatre-Bras and Ligny,
so that Ne}^, left short-handed, failed to defeat the
English; and Napoleon, perplexed, gained only an
incomplete victory over the Prussians, the upshot of
all being that two da^^s later the French lost Water-
loo, which otherwise might perhaps have been won.^
A similar stroke of ill-luck now befell Rosecrans.
An aide of Thomas, passing along the line, thought
he saw a gap between the divisions of Re^molds and
Wood, where Brannan's division should have been.
Brannan, indeed, was in his place, but with his line
somewhat "refused" and so hidden by brushwood
as to be not quite apparent. Forthwith the aide
reported the oversight, and Rosecrans, who well un-
derstood the necessity of a perfect line in the cir-
ctimstances, sent at 11 a.m. a hasty order to Wood
"to close up on Reynolds."^ T. J. Wood, a A^et-
eran of the old army, one of the best of division-
commanders, as was proved later on that day, and
^ Ropes, Campaign of Waterloo, 174, 180, 184.
2 War Records, Serial No. 50, p. 635.
36 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1863
on many another, saw plainly that there was a
mistake. He could not close up on Reynolds with-
out marching round behind Brannan, an utterly
idle movement, Vv'^hich would at the same time create
the gap that Rosecrans was so anxious to avoid.
Why, then, did not Wood delay, it may well be
asked, until there could be explanation? As luck
would have it. Wood had just before been the object
of an outbreak of temper from Rosecrans, who
thought him slow in relieving certain troops to be
detached to the left. Angry himself, from the gen-
eral's reprimand, Wood was in no mood to risk an-
other storm. He has been blamed for not delay-
ing ; ^ instead, with obedience too strict, he at once
put his troops into motion, opening wide the dreaded
gap in the line. To make the matter worse, Thomas
now came up and told Wood that Reynolds did not
need him, and took the responsibility of despatching
Wood also to the left.^
An incident now ensued in the highest degree
dramatic. Longstreet, just opposite, was listening
impatiently, as the forenoon advanced, to the heavy
battle on his right, eager for the time when, accord-
ing to Bragg's plan, his turn should come. Learn-
ing now that, through oversight or discourtesy, his
divisions were being ordered against the opposing
* Cist, Army of the Cumberland, 220 et seq.
^ For criticism on Thomas for stripping McCook and Critten-
den, see Livermore, Some Federal and Confederate Commanders,
in the Military Hist. Soc. of Mass., Papers, X., 229.
CHICKAMAUGA
37
enemy by Bragg without notice to him, he at once,
with faultless tactics, threw into a column, by bri-
gades, his Gettysburg veterans, with Hood in the
lead/ Other troops not less brave were in the
column. With a rush and a roar, the "rebel yell"
mingling with the crash of the cannon, the column
burst from its screen, poured through the gap so
inopportunely left open by Wood, until eight bri-
gades, the very pick of southern valor, had pierced
the Federal formations through and through. Dana,
who was near by, sleeping on the ground after great
fatigue, was awakened by "the most infernal noise
I ever heard." He saw Rosecrans, good Catholic
that he was, crossing himself, and felt that a catas-
trophe had come.^ The Union line once pierced,
the assailants swept to the right. Hood had fallen
dangerously wounded, but there were still good
leaders, and there was no pause in the attack.
Thirty minutes earlier Longstreet would have en-
countered a strong formation; thirty minutes later
the movement so unfortunately in progress would
have been concluded, and the Federal line would
have met him in perfect array. As it was, all at-
tempt to stay the onset seemed hopeless. In the
midst of the wreck was Sheridan and plenty more
as brave, but for a time even their prowess was of
no avail. The flood of fighters surged towards the
rear of Thomas, whom at the same time Polk as-
' Longstreet, Manassas to Appomattox, 447.
2 Dana, Recollections, 115.
38 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1863
saulted in front. A sauve qui pent seemed the only
Federal resource — let every man save himself.^
Borne back by the fugitives, Rosecrans and also
Crittenden and McCook, whose troops had in great
part gone to strengthen the left, were carried help-
less into Rossville Gap. The general, feeling pre-
maturely that all was lost on the field, pursued his
retreat, with the two corps commanders, to Chatta-
nooga, to make ready to receive within its fortifi-
cations the wreck of the army. Arriving at four
o'clock, after the twelve-mile ride, spent with fatigue
and anguish of mind, he was lifted from his saddle
to the ground, and staggered nerveless. It would
have been better for his fame if, like James A. Gar-
field, his chief of staff, he had forced his way from
Rossville Gap back to the field, where, as the af-
ternoon went forward, came a still louder tumult
of battle, indicating that Thomas was holding his
own.
The ''horseshoe " which Thomas made his citadel
is a rocky hillock rising steeply from the lower level
before Rossville Gap. Concentrating his troops in
a convex line around the crest of this hill, gathering
in fragments from the broken corps to the south-
ward, till he had in hand quite two-thirds of the
army, with Baird, Palmer, Davis, Negley, Van Cleve,
Reynolds, Brannan, and the too-obedient Wood, he
refused to flee. Gordon Granger, posted in the
morning as a reserve, marched without orders to
* Thrust on, in Southern Bivouac, V., 412 (December, 1886).
CHICKAMAUGA
39
the sound of the cannon, bringing a reinforcement
of four thousand men. Against this ''rock of
Chickamauga," through the afternoon, the army of
Bragg vainly dashed itself, till the dead lay in a
wide-curving heap about the base of the horseshoe
as the sun fell aslant. The general rode at a mod-
erate pace just behind the line, with cool, encourag-
ing words. The formation admitted of easy rein-
forcement, across the horseshoe, as now one point,
now another, was threatened. The position was
held till nightfall, when Thomas withdrew. In Ross-
ville Gap, as the darkness gathered, two wearied,
dust-covered horsemen met and dismounted. In
the angle of a fence, the younger, taking a rail from
the top, thrust it across the angle lower down for a
seat.^ Here the elder sank down in deep exhaus-
tion, the younger at his side : they were Thomas and
Sheridan. The latter had seen two-fifths of his
command fall that day, among them two of his
three brigadiers. He had been long without sleep
or food. The wasted divisions lay about them ex-
hausted like the generals. There was no pursuit;
the foe were equally spent. Next day the wrecked
army in a toilsome march fell back to Chattanooga,
Sheridan with a remnant guarding the rear of the
Twentieth Corps. From both armies 28,399 were
left dead or wounded upon the field, of whom
16,986 were Confederates. The Federals lost near-
ly 5000 prisoners, against some 1500 on the other
^ Sheridan, Personal Memoirs, I., 284.
40 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1863
side.* Nevertheless, neither army was destroyed;
clearly neither had gained the object of its cam-
paign. It was inevitable that another encounter
must follow the indecisive battle.
* Livermore, Numbers and Losses, 105.
CHAPTER III
CHATTANOOGA AND KNOXVILLE
(September, i863-December, 1863)
RANT'S success at Vicksburg brought him
VJ recognition and deference. One of the first
exercises of this newly won authority was the dis-
placement of McClemand, so long to Grant a thorn
in the flesh. His insubordination at Champion's
Hill, and a foolish proclamation a few weeks later,
in which, while arrogating to his own corps un-
deserved credit, he at the same time slurred his
comrades of the other corps — a proceeding quite
unmilitar}'- and intolerable — furnished Grant occa-
sion for superseding him, action in which the gov-
ernment acquiesced. In this incident Dana counted
for much. As special commissioner of the war de-
partment at headquarters, an important part of his
duty was to report to Stanton upon the men in re-
sponsible position. His estimates were so compre-
hensive as to include not only the chiefs, but even
the brigadiers and staff-officers — a. body of char-
acterizations often severe, sometimes not just, but,
on the whole, full of insight and intelligence, and of
great help to the administration in selecting proper
42 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1863
instruments. As to McClernand, Dana's judgment
coincided with that of Grant, and in his place E. O.
C. Ord became commander of the Thirteenth Corps.
Grant's hands, however, were not yet quite free
to act. He counselled an immediate advance from
the north upon Mobile, which he believed might be
easily captured.^ The plan was not approved; but
Joe Johnston's army was driven back to where it
could do no harm ; the Thirteenth Corps was detached
southward to Louisiana, whence parts of it went af-
terwards to Texas ; a division of the Fifteenth Corps
under Steele was despatched into Arkansas, and still
other troops into Mississippi ; the Ninth Corps, sent
down by Burnside from Cincinnati during the siege,
was returned to him; with what remained, under
Sherman and McPherson, Grant lay at Vicksburg
as the summer closed.
The defeat at Chickamauga spurred the Federal
energies into vigorous action. At once the Eleventh
Corps, Howard, and the Twelfth Corps, Slocum, were
detached from the Army of the Potomac and sent
under Hooker to reinforce the defeated Rosecrans.
Full fifteen thousand men, with their equipments
and belongings, were in eight days transferred by
the northern railroads from Virginia to Alabama,
stepping out upon the western arena the first days of
October unfatigued and well appointed. This was
only one of numerous feats of the kind performed
by the departments of the quartermaster and com-
^ Grant, Personal Memoirs, I., 484 et seq.
i863]
CHATTANOOGA
43
missary generals, Montgomery C. Meigs and Rufus
Ingalls, officials in the background, but whose
mighty service in those years counted powerfully
towards the successful outcome.
Burnside, charged with the military occupation
of east Tennessee through Cumberland Gap, was
incited to do his best. Grant, too, was instructed to
report at the earliest possible moment at Cairo.
Proceeding thither at speed, he was ordered to
Louisville, and met on the way no less a personage
than Secretary Stanton himself, who had hurried
west to concert with him proper measures for the
crisis. He was assigned at once to the command of
a new department, that of the Mississippi, compris-
ing the country west of the Alleghanies, and involv-
ing the control of not only the Army of the Ten-
nessee at Vicksburg, but also of the Army of the
Cumberland and the Army of the Ohio, the latter
being the force of Burnside. He acquiesced in the
superseding of Rosecrans, whose military inade-
quacy had been plain to him since the battles of
luka and Corinth.^ Rosecrans, also McCook and
Crittenden, thereupon joined the company, now^ be-
coming numerous, of commanders found wanting,
often rather through ill-luck than ill-desert, and
consigned to shelves more or less honorable, with
little part thenceforth in the great drama. Thomas
was made commander of the Army of the Cumber-
land. No sooner were these dispositions made than
^ Grant, Personal Memoirs, I., 490.
44 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1863
they were definitely announced by telegraph. Grant
at once proceeded to Chattanooga, meeting on the
way Rosecrans coming north, from w^hom he re-
ceived excellent suggestions as to a campaign, "if
he had only carried them out." ^ A day or two
later he was in Chattanooga, where the situation
demanded all his power.
The Army of the Cumberland lay intrenched
within the town, dependent for its supplies upon
a single long and imperfect road across the moim-
tains. The Tennessee, broad and deep, was a bar-
rier on the north. Just east of the town began
Bragg's intrenchments, on the river, running thence
southward along the high crest of Missionary Ridge,
then westward across the valley to Lookout Ridge,
there connecting again with the river; the outpost
here occupied a famous landmark, Lookout Moim-
tain, which, rising twenty-four hundred feet, domi-
nates the region far and near.
Though diminished and disorganized at Chicka-
mauga, the Army of the Cumberland was by no
means beaten or discouraged. Two-thirds of it, in-
deed, had been held by Thomas to gallant work in
the battle, retiring in good order at last. It is per-
haps not too much to claim that had Rosecrans
gone back with Garfield from Rossville to the field,
and shown the force and fertility that he showed in
the crisis at Stone's River, a victory might have
been gained in spite of the rout of the right. The
* Grant, Personal Memoirs, I., 498.
CHATTANOOGA
45
Federals in Chattanooga stood quite undismayed
iinder a leader whom they thoroughly trusted, on
short rations, to be sure, but cheerfully biding their
time. Meanwhile, Hooker was already at hand with
two corps ; and Sherman, who now succeeded to the
command of the Army of the Tennessee, was ordered,
September 23, to march with all speed with the
Fifteenth Corps to Chattanooga, leaving McPherson
at Vicksburg and Hurlbut at Memphis.^
The powerful blow delivered by the Confederacy
at Chickamauga, though to some extent an offset
to the Federal successes of the summer, did not
really balance them, and had a sequence full of
disappointment to the South. Longstreet believed
that on the field the tactics of the afternoon of
September 20 were gravely at fault, and that the
advantage gained was not properly pushed home.^
Chattanooga was only partially invested, whereas,
in the opinion of this strong commander of the left
wing, the Federal communications might and should
have been entirely cut. Fortunately for the Fed-
erals, the camp of their adversaries was a scene
of contention, Bragg having no friends among his
higher officers, and on his part criticising and de-
nouncing them in unmeasured terms. Polk was re-
moved from his command; D. H. Hill, too, was now
forced out of service, not to draw his sword again
until the last days of the war. Though Hardee was
* W. T. Sherman, Memoirs, I., 372 et seq.
2 Longstreet, Manassas to Appomattox, 452, 461 et seq.
46 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1863
recalled from the South and given Polk's place, his
relations with Bragg were scarcely more friendly;
while every line of Longstreet's memoirs implies
disgust at what he regards as the mismanagement
of his chief.
Into this scene of dissension suddenly dropped
Jefferson Davis, and it is impossible to feel that his
visit helped his cause. No testimony could shake
his faith in Bragg, though he was so far moved by
the general dissatisfaction as to offer the command
to Longstreet, then to Hardee. Both refused, de-
pressed with hopelessness as to success under the
prevailing conditions.^ Longstreet urged that John-
ston, already in nominal command of the depart-
ment, should be trusted, stating his own willingness
to serve under him. When Davis manifested dis-
pleasure, Longstreet begged to resign. This request
was refused, and Bragg was retained, with memo-
rable results.
John C. Pemberton, captured at Vicksburg, but
later exchanged, was with Davis at Chattanooga.
In spite of his strong fight at Champion's Hill and
his stubborn defence of Vicksburg, he was, on ac-
count of his northern birth and ill-success, in a high
degree unpopular. When Davis, therefore, sustain-
ing Bragg 's action in removing Polk, suggested Pem-
berton to command the corps, he was met by dis-
approval, which he was forced to respect, so that
Hardee was appointed.^ The ineffective invest-
^ Longstreet, Manassas to Appomattox, 466. ^ Ibid., 469.
i863]
CHATTANOOGA
47
merit with which Bragg's lieutenants were so dis-
satisfied, but which they were powerless to change,
soon came to a disastrous end.
Grant arrived in Chattanooga October 23, find-
ing that Thomas had omitted nothing that it was
possible to accomplish/ The intrenchments were
strong, the army in good spirits, the demoralization
from Chickamauga a thing of the past. To be sure,
rations were short, and animals were dying by hun-
dreds of starvation. A scheme was on foot, how-
ever, for opening a better and shorter route for
communicating with the North, planned by an
able engineer. General W. F. Smith, which Grant at
once approved and carried out.^ In the operation
the Army of the Cumberland was well supported
by the corps of Hooker.^ Longstreet, who held the
Confederate left, was eluded and beaten back, and
by the brilliant night capture of Brown's Ferry, a
well-protected road was opened to the town from
Bridgeport, which point the railroad reached. In
the Federal host hope now rose to the highest. They
lived in plenty ; the corps of the Army of the Potomac
were good comrades; and now, by Grant's order,
Sherman was hurrying the Fifteenth Corps from
Memphis across Tennessee to their relief.
Bragg now took a most unfortunate step.^ Burn-
^ Battles and Leaders, III., 679.
^ War Records, Serial No. 54, pp. 39-234 (Reopening of the
Tennessee River). ^ Dana, Recollections, 134.
^War Records, Serial No. 54, pp. 255-550 (Knoxville Cam-
paign).
4.
48 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1863
side, with the newly constituted Army of the Ohio,
made up of the Ninth and Twenty- third Corps, was ly-
ing in east Tennessee, making glad, at last, the heart
of Lincoln by bringing succor to the greatly suffering
Unionists of that region. At no time in his career
did Burnside bear himself so well as during this
campaign/ The man vanquished at Fredericks-
burg rarely referred to the past; much less did he
spend time in bewailing misfortunes or in criticism;
he faced his new work with skill and a manly heart.
As he approached, Buckner, the Confederate com-
mander, retired before him, and, as has been noted,
he occupied Knoxville, September 3. His detach-
ments spreading thence through the valleys, 'enjoyed
what to a Federal army was a most unusual expe-
rience, a warm welcome from the people to whom
they came.
During the visit of Jefferson Davis at Chatta-
nooga, a plan was concerted for a quick disposing of
Burnside in east Tennessee, by an expedition from
Bragg's army that should return in time for the new
battle, which it was now plain the Federals were
determined upon. For this work Longstreet was
selected; he showed no reluctance, but insisted
upon despatch as vital to success. Accordingly,
Longstreet, with the division of McLaws, and the
former division of Hood, now under Jenkins, to-
gether with Wheeler's cavalry, entered early in No-
vember upon an operation marked with disaster;
^ Cox, Military Reminiscences, I., 520 et seq.
i863] CHATTANOOGA 49
while Bragg, meantime, his best troops at a dis-
tance, was obhged to meet a peril which he had not
rightly measured.
Sherman, in answer to Grant's summons, marched
eastward from Memphis with all the speed possible.
Going himself in advance of the troops, he narrowly
escaped capture by raiding cavalry near Corinth.^
The Army of the Tennessee at this time performed
other feats than those of arms : General G. M. Dodge,
with eight thousand men, making their own tools,
built railroads, boats, mills, bridges, with an in-
dustry and skill that repaired in a brief time the
ravages of war.^ Word soon came from Grant to
drop all work not bearing directly upon the quick-
est possible advance to Chattanooga; and, obeying
to the letter, on November 14, 1863, Sherman rode
into the threatened town, as usual in advance of his
divisions. The columns arrived a week later, pre-
pared for w^ork that was at once assigned them.
The Confederate line before Chattanooga, except
on the left, had changed little since the first in-
vestment immediately after Chickamauga.^ Hardee's
corps held the right, where at the north Missionary
Ridge came to an end, with the Tennessee, just be-
low the jimction with the Chickamiauga, near its
base. Thence southward to Rossville Gap the line
followed the crest, which was often narrow, the
^ W. T, Sherman, Memoirs, I., 379.
2 Grant, Personal Memoirs, 513 et seq.
^ War Records, Serial No. 55 (Chattanooga Campaign).
VOL. XXI. — 4
50 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1863
slope on either hand descending steeply to the
lower level. Bragg had his headquarters here in
a central position, the troops of Breckinridge hold-
ing the highland from Hardee's position as far as
Rossville Gap. Crossing the Chattanooga Valley to
Lookout Range, the line south westward to the river
again was now but weakly garrisoned, for from this
post Longstreet's divisions had just departed for
Knoxville. Here Bragg 's position was notably less
advantageous than when the siege began. Before
Longstreet's departure, the advance of Hooker in
connection with the opening of the "cracker-line,"
the convenient road for supplies so cleverly made
available by W. F. Smith, established a powerful
force threateningly near the weakened Confederate
left.
Opposed to Bragg, Grant, in the lower ground to
the west, appreciating fully the value of prompt-
ness, now ranged his zealous and hopeful army.
Sherman held the left, for the moment lying on the
north of the river opposite Hardee. Thomas, with
the Army of the Cumberland, reorganized and rein-
forced since its disaster, fronted the line of Breckin-
ridge on Missionary Ridge immediately before the
town; Hooker, as mentioned, stood at the right, on
ground won since the siege began. To about fifty-
six thousand Federals stood opposed forty-six thou-
sand Confederates.^ Any one who has beheld the
theatre of operations will believe that the advan-
* Livermore, Numbers and Losses, 106.
CHATTANOOGA
51
tage of the Confederate position was fully equal to
the difference in numbers. Grant's plan was that
Sherman should make the main attack on the left,
while Thomas and Hooker were to make demon-
strations in their fronts designed to prevent the
reinforcement of Hardee against Sherman from the
line farther south; but their feints, should a chance
offer, were to be turned into real assaults.
Accordingly, on November 23, 1863, Thomas be-
gan offensive operations by marching out from the
forts near the town, with Grant in his company, and
seizing advanced ground which included Orchard
Knob, a rocky hill in front of the Confederate line;
Thomas stood prepared to assault from Orchard
Knob, while Hooker, at the right, attacked the
slope of Lookout. The air on the next morning,
November 24, was charged with coolness, mists
from the river obscuring the lowlands, while clouds
drifted about the heights. Long before light the
corps of Sherman threw off concealment and made
its way by pontoons across the river against the
north end of Missionary Ridge. This was quickly
carried and the ridge surmounted, whereupon Sher-
man encountered a great disappointment : the height
upon which he stood was isolated, a gorge which,
had quite escaped his reconnoissance intervening be-
tween it and the ridge proper, on the steep opposite
side of which Hardee was posted ; but there was no
abatement of the vigor of the attack, which was met
with equal spirit, the armies clashing in eager battle.
52 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1863
It was at the south that the Union success first
began. The ardor of Hooker's men, impelling them
beyond the lower acclivities of Lookout Mountain,
soon carried them to the highest points, till at last
the battalions, fighting as they climbed, reached
Pulpit Rock, a height of twenty-four hundred feet.
Nor did Hooker pause here. Though delayed some-
what in the low ground by Chattanooga Creek, he
soon crossed, the Confederates retiring, and was in
good time at Rossville ; whence, pressing northward
along Missionary Ridge, with a division in either
valley east and west, and still another advancing
on the crest between, he threw back Breckinridge,
who was thus brought into a strait.
Ere this Thomas was in motion. The feat of
Hooker's men, lifted as they were high in air, had
been distinctly visible and audible to the Army of
the Cumberland, who, standing impatient in battle
array on the afternoon of the 25th, received the
order to take the rifle-pits which Bragg had con-
trived at the foot of the ridge. That proved an
easy task, after which the men, without orders,
stung by their late humiliation at Chickamauga,
and beholding the chance which fortune opened,
surged in a wave of blue up the almost precipitous
ascent. A second line of rifle-pits half-way up
offered an obstacle even less embarrassing than that
at the base. Soon the panting ranks were at the
summit, four hundred feet above the plain. The
hostile line was at once broken through, and, turn-
CHATTANOOGA
53
ing right and left, the assailants in a few moments
overpowered all resistance, whether of infantry or
of artillery, barely missing the capture of Bragg
himself, who galloped eastward down the height.
In this impetuous and happy exploit many were
brave, but the figure of special interest perhaps was
Sheridan, who reached the top among the first.
Afire with the battle-glow, lavish it is to be feared
of imprecations, mounted upon a cannon that his
short stature might be properly pedestalled, he
swayed the throng of stormers.
Sherman, who as yet had made no headway, must
be succored at the northern end of the ridge. The
division of Baird, therefore, which among the troops
of Thomas w^as farthest to the left, fell hotly upon
Hardee's rear. Struck thus before and behind, even
that skilful soldier was without recourse. He with-
drew defeated to the Chickamauga Valley, as did
also Breckinridge at the south. Every position was
captured, the entire ridge cleared of the foe, and
through the night, that fell as the battle closed, the
beaten Bragg fled southward into Georgia.
To the Federals the loss in killed was 753 ; wounded,
4722; to the Confederates, in killed, 361; wounded,
2160;* the latter lost many guns and more than
4000 prisoners. The victory of Chattanooga, though
attended with small comparative loss, was more im-
portant in results than many bloodier fields; and
as regards elements of impressiveness perhaps sur-
^ Liveraiore, Numbers and Losses, 106.
54 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1863
passes every other battle of the war. East and West
fought side by side in earnest emulation. It was
the Army of the Tennessee, Vicksburg men, that
struck at the north; the Army of the Potomac,
Gettysburg men, that scaled Lookout; the Army
of the Cumberland, Chickamauga men, that carried
Missionary Ridge. To these last, since they had
suffered most, it fell appropriately to administer
the coup de grace. Here, too, for the only time, con-
tended side by side the four supreme Federal leaders
— Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, and Thomas. For the
striving of these champions nature provided a ma-
jestic theatre, and rarely indeed has a battle been
attended by circumstances so picturesque.
The charge of the Army of the Cumberland, with-
out orders, up the beetling Missionary Ridge, before
Grant and Thomas, astounded and anxious on
Orchard Knob, was such a spectacle as human eyes
have rarely seen. Hooker's achievement on Look-
out Mountain, beheld among and above the drifting
clouds by both hosts, was a worthy drama, worthily
witnessed. Sheridan, in intense interest, followed
with his glass a color-bearer, who in front of the
line waved his flag dauntlessly in the charge till
the mountain was carried.* As the evening deep-
ened, the full moon rose magnified at the horizon
line by atmospheric refraction. While it hung for
a few moments behind an eastern ridge, a charging
column passed across its disk, weirdly silhouetted
* Sheridan, Personal Memoirs^ I., 306.
CHATTANOOGA
55
before the beholders, the brandished weapons and
frenzied figures wild and strange as in a march of
goblins.*
How fared Longstreet meantime, detached with
the best troops of the Confederate army for the
Knoxville expedition? From the first things went
wrong. Delayed at the start, they found them-
selves on arriving among a hostile people, and were
met everywhere by Bumside with vigor and skill.
The Federal chief had able lieutenants, especially
Potter and Hartranft of the Ninth Corps, ^ who, as
colonels at Antietam, carried the stone bridge on
the left ; and also Sanders, a young cavalry general,
whose promise was cut off untimely in this campaign.
The southern officers and men appear to have gone
to work only half-heartedly. Of the brigadiers, the
conduct of Robertson was bad; while Law, jealous
of Jenkins, who had been preferred to him as leader
of a division in place of the wounded Hood, wilfully
held back in his duty, believing that a success would
go to the credit of his rival. ^ Even the true and
tried McLaws, who in capturing the garrison of
Harper's Ferry before Antietam did perhaps as
much as Stonewall Jackson, and at Fredericksburg
repulsed from the stinken road the Federal right,
was now accused of slackness and court-mar tialled.^
* Sheridan, Personal Memoirs, I,, 315.
2 War Records, Serial No. 54, p. 332.
2 Longstreet, Manassas to Appomattox, 495-548.
^ War Records, Serial No. 54, pp. 503 et seq.
56 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1863
The doughty Longstreet himself, without faith in
the enterprise and disheartened by the behavior
of both superiors and subordinates, acknowledges a
letting down of his own energies. In an assault,
November 29, upon Fort Sanders, at Knoxville,
where he was beaten back with a loss of a thousand
men, he admits that he too credulously accepted an
exaggerated account of the strength of the Federal
works, and drew off when he ought to have struck
again. ^ For the Confederates all came to naught.
As Bragg had been driven south of the Georgia
border, so Longstreet, after a trying winter expe-
rience in the unfriendly highlands, at last made his
way back through southwest Virginia to the side
of Lee. When the year 1864 opened, Tennessee
throughout was almost wrested from the Confeder-
ate grasp ; a party of guerillas now and then might
threaten a bridge or rob a train, but as to regular
and formal resistance in that state, the war for
the time was over.
^ Longstreet, Manassas to Appomattox, 507.
CHAPTER IV
LIFE IN WAR-TIME NORTH AND SOUTH
(1863)
ii feel that, in spite of many a rough stroke re-
ceived, she had inflicted more than she had suf-
fered: the Confederacy was now cleft apart, and
the patrol of the Union gun-boats up and down the
Mississippi was constant and vigilant. Not only
was it out of the question for armies to cross, but
it was a risk for individuals to attempt a passage
in a skiff; much more so to attempt to ferry over
a herd of cattle, a load of cotton, or provisions of
any kind: unlucky furloughed soldiers from the
trans-Mississippi could not get home.^ Resistance
was practically quelled in both the divided parts
north of the Gulf states. West of that river, Kirby
Smith and Dick Taylor were soon to strike a last
telling blow for the Confederacy on the Red River;
but, as regards the trans-Mississippi coimtry, the
Richmond government had little to contemplate
but a series of reverses, as a result of which its cause
was prostrate. East of the river the war was
North had reason to
Hague, A Blockaded Family, 130.
58 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1863
practically at an end in Kentucky and throughout
Tennessee, except one last spasmodic convulsion to
be described ere long. Alabama remained to be
subdued, and also the great region from Florida ^
northward; though in each Atlantic state the sea- I
coast was dominated, if not actually occupied, by
Federal armies and fleets, with the exception of a ^
harbor here and there into which the blockade- \
runners still continued to penetrate.
This wide subjugation, with the desperate effort
to fight it off, profoundly modified the life of the
southern people. Men of the arms-bearing age were
in the field, and those who stayed at home, the
women, old men, and children, were greatly affect-
ed in their conditions. The modification was not
always of a melancholy kind. Miss Parthenia A.
Hague, living in southern Alabama, author of an
interesting record,^ gives a pleasant picture of the
days passed on the plantations. The vigorous men
were in arms, the plantations tilled by the negroes,
whose fidelity to their old masters was largely un-
shaken. The blockade, cutting off as it did every-
thing that came from the outside, threw the people
upon their own resources. Instead of the unvary-
ing cotton, crops became diversified, producing, so
far as possible, what could no longer be imported.
Domestic industries, long obsolete, were plied again:
the women spun, wove, and dyed, making fabrics
which they turned into garments; candles were
^ Hague, A Blockaded Family, passim.
CIVIL LIFE
59
moulded, baskets and furniture contrived of wicker-
work, hats from wool, and shoes from leather, which
had never before been so well tanned. Flocks of
goats were introduced with great benefit, in the
idea that they might tempt the cupidity of possible
invaders less than horses and beeves. Communities
grew self-reliant as never before. It seems plain
that the harsh circumstances tended to bring about
a healthier life than when the planter and his wife
superintended the slave-raised cotton, while mean-
time from the outside came in a stream of supplies
that removed the need of work of brain or hand.
But hardship and afHiction constantly grew deeper;
privation pinched ever more acutely; death deso-
lated every household; the fear of the foe was con-
stant, until they came, and came to crush.
The suffering on the plantations was small as
compared with that in the besieged towns. One
may still see in Vicksbtn-g two or three of the caves
into which the people were driven — damp burrows
into the heart of the hills, the crumbling roofs and
sides propped up by timbers, the ravines into which
they opened never out of reach of the far-penetrat-
ing shells of the Federals. Of the constant terror,
the pressing want, the wounds, and death with
which each day was attended, there are pathetic
recitals.^
Of the high life of the South in war-times, the
aristocracy under the old regime being scarcely less
* My Cave Life in Vickshurg, by a Lady.
6o OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1863
a class apart than in the midst of feudal conditions,
there is no more vivid picture than that of Mrs.
James Chesnut, wife of a former United States
senator from South Carolina who became a Con-
federate general and an aide of Jefferson Davis. ^
She was in middle age, full of vitality, good-hearted,
well schooled and travelled, possessed, too, of a
cheery humor, at times so breezy and robust as to
recall the Wife of Bath. Flitting from point to
point — Montgomery, Richmond, Columbia, Charles-
ton, or at this or that country seat — her familiars
were Jefferson Davis, Lee, and many other men of
the hour and their families, whom she depicts in
her panorama in lively colors. At first her narra-
tive effervesces with high spirits, reflecting merrily
a cheerful environment; but gloom deepens as the
months proceed; in place of buoyancy come wrath
and depression, while laughter ceases in the fre-
quent shadow of death. After a battle in 1863 she
limns a sober picture of a communion service in St.
Paul's Church in Richmond, during which the sex-
ton hurries at short intervals up the aisle with a
whispered summons to the families whose sons,
brothers, or husbands are brought in from the
fields in their coffins. He goes at last to the min-
ister in the chancel, who, leaving the distribution of
the bread and wine to his assistant, departs with
the others to meet his sorrow.^
Yet Mrs. Chesnut cannot long be sad. In a De-
* Mrs. Chesnut, Diary from Dixie. ^ Ibid., 245.
CIVIL LIFE
6i
cember record of this year she tells a merry story
of an excursion down the river in the flag-of-truce
boat to a French frigate which had come up through
Hampton Roads. The party, in much - fractured
French, tried to establish an entente cordiale. Vieff
r Emperor!" cries one. ''A la sante de I'Emperor!"
cries another, with raised glass. But the Frenchmen,
of course under orders to be cautious, are unre-
sponsive. The good lady may be excused for say-
ing that the frigate was *'a dirty little thing," and
her officers unattractive. **They can't help not be-
ing good-looking, but with all the world open to
them, to wear such shabby clothes!"
That the Confederacy, shut off from the world by
the ever-tightening blockade, was by this time badly
out at the elbows there is much evidence. In the
spring of 1863 there were bread riots; in November
flour sold at over a hundred dollars a barrel,
and suffering more acute was impending.* The
painful lack in the Confederacy of all supplies ex-
cept food and the raw materials for fabrics was a
source of weakness which could not be overcome.
Clothes, shoes, medicines, machinery, arms, paper,
powder — the thousand appliances of civilized life in
peace and the means for making war — came to the
South only in blockade - runners from Europe or
were captured by her armies from her northern foes.
There was grievous dearth of workshops, skilled
labor, and scientific accomplishment which could
* Jones, Rebel War Clerk's Diary, II., 90, 284.
62 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1863
be turned to practical account in such an exi-
gency. Nevertheless, there were men who coped as
they could with a situation which ever grew more
serious, and the story requires mention of work
often as important as that of generals in the
field.
John M. Brooke, a naval officer of ingenious turn,
while attached to the Naval Observatory at Wash-
ington, had attracted notice as the inventor of an
apparatus for deep-sea sounding^ and otherwise
furthering the study of the physical geography of
the sea, which about the middle of the nineteenth
century was engaging attention. Taking sides with
the South, he was soon put in charge of the Tredegar
Works, at Richmond, and here developed into a
skilful mechanical engineer, creating with small
means a vast forge and machine-shop, and educat-
ing a numerous body of mechanics. His principal
achievement was the devising of the ram Virginia ^
a remarkable feat in view of his limited means. ^
His plans were so marked by originality as to place
him in the class with Eads, Ericsson, and other
great Tubal Cains who in these latter days have
equipped the world with marvellous tools. On
shore as well as sea Brooke continued to supply
machines; and he kept in some sort of order the
hard- worked railroads; while shot and shell and
^ Corbin, Maury, 99.
2 Scharf, Confederate States Navy, 145; Battles and Leaders, I.,
715-
i863]
CIVIL LIFE
63
the cannon that hurled them came abundantly out
of the Tredegar furnaces.
Matthew Fontaine Maury, of an old Huguenot
family in Spottsylvania County, Virginia, was in
1 861 probably the most distinguished scientific man
who held a commission in the nay7.^ At the head
of the Naval Observatory in Washington, his reputa-
tion was especially that of an hydrographer. His
work in mapping the ocean-currents, in meteorology,
in studying marine phenomena in general, from the
bed of the sea to the winds that blew^ above its sur-
face, in devising and properly laying the first ocean
cables, was recognized as of value by the sailors of
every land. When at the outbreak he resigned his
commission, Constantine, grand-admiral of Russia,
offered him high position. But he went with the
South, serving the Confederacy first as chief of sea-
coast, harbor, and river defences, and later in Europe.
His service was especially noteworthy ifi contriving
instruments for submarine warfare — mines and tor-
pedoes, which the Federal ships found formidable
long after the southern navy at home had practically
ceased to exist.
Of southern scientists of that time none were more
interesting than the brothers John and Joseph Le
Conte.^ Like Maury, of Huguenot strain, they were
born in Georgia, men of genius in several directions,
before the w^ar accomplished chemists. From Jo-
^ Corbin, Maury, passim.
^ Joseph Le Conte, Autobiography.
64 OUTCOME OP THE CIVIL WAR [1863
seph's autobiography it appears that he was in
youth a favorite pupil of Agassiz. He hesitated in
regard to secession, but at last, when the University
of South Carolina (where both brothers were pro-
fessors) was broken up by the enlistment of all the
students, they were swept away in the current, be-
coming active workers and severe sufferers for their
cause. The Le Contes established laboratories at
Columbia, South Carolina, which became the main
source of supply for medicines and hospital require-
ments. Through them also the South was able to
utilize its nitre-beds ;' in the manufacture of powder
the Le Contes became indispensable.* Joseph, whom
we know best, was an amiable teacher and scholar,
who later as a geologist, in the University of Cali-
fornia, of which John became president, established
a fame among the first. His autobiography, written
late in life, narrates in calm and unembittered terms
many painful experiences in the war-time. With
manly candor he writes:
"I am not blaming anybody on either side. It
was evidently an honest difference of opinion as to
the nature of our government ; it was honestly fought
out to a finish, and the result frankly accepted. But
let it be distinctly understood that there never was
a war in which were more thoroughly enlisted the
hearts of the whole people — men, women, and chil-
dren— than were those of the South in this. To us
it was literally a life and death struggle for national
^ Mrs. Chesnnt, Diary from Dixie, 187.
1863] CIVIL LIFE 65
existence; and doubtless the feeling was equally
honest and earnest on the other side."^
The aspect of the North at the end of 1863 was
in marked contrast to that of the South. In poli-
tics it was an "off year," the elections being for state
officers only; but the results indicated better things
for the Union, particularly the overwhelming de-
feat of Vallandigham in Ohio. As regards loss of
men, the suffering in both sections was similar. The
homes were few which had not sent out at least one
soldier, and very many had sent more, from whom
the grave gathered a heavy tribute. But excepting,
this desolation, there was little sign of bad times at
the North. It was prosperity that one beheld.
The energetic government supplied every need with
prompt liberality; every forge was making weapons
and ammunition; every factory turning out tents,
clothes, equipments, supplies of every kind. What-
ever the land could produce, crops, horses, cattle,
found a ready market; there was labor for all, and
the pay was sure and ample; to the adroit and
rapacious, extraordinary opportunities opened for
amassing fortunes; to many wealth came almost
without an effort. The merchants who happened
to have on their shelves a stock of cotton cloth, the
farmers who had raised good crops of onions or
tobacco, the lumbermen who had beams and boards
on hand, sold their merchandise at unexpected prices.
A public debt, to be sure, was rolling up, surpassing
* Joseph Le Conte, Autobiography, 181.
VOL. XXI. — s
66 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1861
everything the world had previously known, and
the cautious apprehended a dismal reckoning in the
future; but the mass of the people had few fears.
They bought with alacrity the government securities
and paid with few murmurs the internal revenue
taxes, which by this time furnished an abundant
return. The rising price of gold was ominous; the
disappearance, too, of specie from the currency was
startling; but in its place the people accepted the
greenbacks, of which there were in circulation,*
January i, 1864, $444,825,022, thereby submitting
to a forced loan in addition to the ''kewpon bonds,"
which in thousands of plain households now gave
evidence of the confidence in the government. Of
the resolute cheerfulness of the northern people, no
better or more representative utterance can be found
than a passage from the pen of one of the best and
ablest Americans, Dr. Asa Gray, in his letters to Dar-
win and others at this time.
" Oh foolish people ! When will you see that there
is only one end to all this, and that the North never
dreams of any other. . . . Wait a year longer and you
may return to a country in which slavery having
tried to get more has lost all, and as a system, is de-
funct. The November elections show a united
North. Peace Democracy has made its issue and
is dead. The re-election of Lincoln by accla-
mation seems probable, supported by moderate
men of all sorts, the extremes of the opposing par-
^ Blaine, Twenty Years, I., 643.
CIVIL LIFE
67
ties alone going against him. Merry Christmas to
you!"^
A noteworthy feature of the Civil War was the
organized charity. In the wars of past times, up
to the middle of the nineteenth century, the com-
fort of the soldier depended upon what his govern-
ment could give him. The suffering in the Crimea,
making plain as it did the inadequacy of the au-
thorities to cope with the needs of the troops, de-
veloped agencies with which the name of Florence
Nightingale is forever bound. Proceeding upon this
precedent, at the outset of the Civil War the Sani-
tary Commission was organized.^ Its purpose was to
supplement the work of the government, in the field,
in camps, and in hospitals, supplying to the troops
such mitigations of pain and privation as are pos-
sible. June 9, 1 86 1, formal organization was effected
by an order of the secretary of war. The president
of the commission was Henry Whitney Bellows, a
New York clergyman of great energy and eloquence,
who had initiated the movement ; and its able secre-
tary was Frederick Law Olmstead. With them were
associated men of distinction in law, business, above
all in the medical profession; at once a beginning
was made of organized philanthropy.
Everywhere there was zeal ; the suffering to be
relieved was that of sons and brothers. Money was
ready to flow; especially the hearts of women were
* Asa Gray, Letters, II., 511-517.
2 Still^, Hist, of the Sanitary Commission.
68 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1861
moved ; whatever their brains could suggest, or their
hands contrive, came in overflowing measure. This
offering needed direction, which the Sanitary Com-
mission undertook to furnish. That its work was
wisely done was questioned by few that saw it ; and
its record is an interesting chapter in the history of
the war. The service rendered by its managers,
though unpaid, was constant and able. Through
its channels at least twenty-five million dollars flowed
out in relief.^ The commission possessed the con-
fidence of the soldiers who were ministered to, and
of the people who ministered. Since the war it
has been the model upon which the "Red Cross"
work in various lands has been planned.
Affiliated with the Sanitary Commission was the
Western Sanitary Commission, organized in St. Louis
for work in the Mississippi Valley.^ A brother or-
ganization was the Christian Commission, supported
by people of evangelical religious belief, whose effort
was, besides physical relief, to reinforce the work of
the chaplains in the care of souls.
While in these great societies all was done with
the best purpose and the warmest zeal, they did not
escape criticism. Still6 speaks of a lack of sym-
pathy on the part of the government departments;^
and General Sherman, with his usual frankness,
while admitting great usefulness, declares that the
* Stills, Hist, of the Sanitary Commission, 490.
2 Mrs. Charlotte Eliot, W. G. Eliot, 212.
^ Stills, Hist, of the Sanitary Commission, 510.
1863] CIVIL LIFE 69
ministrations of such societies should be in the rear
of fighting armies and not on the field of battle.^
Their creation, however, was undoubtedly a step in
advance, and henceforth no civilized country will
array armies without studying carefully this Ameri-
can experience.
A word or two should be said as to the work of the
public press in the war. The newspaper, which in
quiet times is the universal informant and counsel-
lor, becomes in war-times more than ever a necessity
of life. Bread and the newspaper," one is scarcely
less essential than the other. The work of the press
during the Civil War was performed by men often
of the highest character and ability. Horace Gree-
ley, Henry J. Raymond, Charles A. Dana, A. K.
McClure, Murat Halstead, Whitelaw Reid, George
W. Smalley, Joseph Medill, Samuel Bowles, and
many more most capable writers — the list is a brill-
iant one of those who in editorial chairs or as corre-
spondents in the field furnished news and moulded
opinion.
Nevertheless, throughout the war, there was never
a time when in either North or South the relations
were entirely easy and cordial between commanders
and newspaper-men, and they often w^ere at swords'
points. Lee is said to have spoken of newspapers
in general with great severity.^ He impugned their
patriotism, instancing particularly their conduct
* W. T. Sherman, Memoirs, II., 392.
^ R. E. Lee, Jr., Recollections and Letters of Lee, 416.
70 OUTCOME OP THE CIVIL WAR [1863
when, in 1863, Longstreet was sent west before
Chickamauga ; it was vital to keep the movement
secret, but the newspapers insisted on making it pub-
lic. Grant's disposition towards the correspondents
was no kinder;* and Cox tells stories of jarring and
ill-accord between generals and correspondents which
probably all generals at the front could have paral-
leled.^ These writers, no doubt, were often incon-
siderate, tactless, and perhaps worse. The general
was sometimes browbeaten in his headquarters by
a correspondent who told him that his paper every
day made and unmade greater men than he was.
One writer of note, William Swinton, was accused
by both Grant and Cox of being an eavesdropper,
a presumptuous hector, and a calumniator.
Perhaps there is a deep-seated reason why soldiers
and newspaper-men should be unfriendly. If "war
is hell," as a high military authority states, it is no
more infernal in the devastation and homicide which
results, than in the deception which war makes no
less necessary. From the time of the Trojan horse,
at the outset of history, to the capture of Aguinaldo,
in our day, the course of human warfare is marked
no more by bloodshed than by strategy. There can
be no warfare without strategy, and strategy is the
art of making feints. The great strategist is he who
can best hoodwink his adversary, and strike his
blow while the adversary is in error. Such a course
* Grant, Personal Memoirs, II., 68.
^ Cox, Military Reminiscences, I., 172.
CIVIL LIFE
71
once entered upon, is liable soon to become bald
treachery and lying. To make war is of necessity
to produce devastation, man-slaying, untruth — a
thing only justifiable as the sole means of averting
what is worse. The world believes that the time
is not yet come when it can dispense with the sol-
dier, and while he exists, the soldier apparently must
deceive as well as burn and kill.
Now, while it is essential in the soldier's trade that
he go furtively to work, the very air in which the
press lives is publicity. It exists to tell the truth
fully and accurately; and if a suspicion arises that
the press comes short here, it is straightway dis-
credited, loses influence, and may be thrust aside.
When, therefore, the journalist, the man who must
tell the truth or fail, faces the soldier, who must de-
ceive or fail, a natural antagonism develops between
the two; unfriendliness is inevitable. The agent of
publicity can never be welcome in a campaign.
CHAPTER V
CONCENTRATION UNDER GRANT
(December, 1863-ApRiL, 1864)
THE military events of the summer and fall of
1863 brought to the front the great commanders
who were thenceforth to take responsibility and
achieve victory. In civil life also new men pushed
to the front. The thirty-eighth Congress (elected
in 1862), which met December 7, 1863, organized
by choosing as speaker Schuyler Colfax, of Indiana,
the party vote standing loi to 81, the majority in-
dicating accurately the Republican strength, though
there were besides a few Democrats who usually sus-
tained the administration.* Colfax, who thus came
forward into high position, was by trade a printer,
a man active-minded and industrious, who since his
appearance in public life had been marked as an
able debater, and now confirmed a reputation as a
skilful parliamentarian.^ Several of the prominent
men of the thirty-seventh Congress were missed:
Elbridge G. Spaulding and Roscoe Conkling, of New
York; John A. Bingham and Samuel Shellabarger,
^ Blaine, Twenty Years, I,, 497 et seq.
2 Riddle, Recollections, 249.
CONCENTRATION
73
of Ohio; Galusha A. Grow, of Pennsylvania, and
still others. Of the new men, perhaps the most
brilliant was Henry Winter Davis, of Maryland,
whose ardent Unionism had operated powerfully to
save his state from secession, and who, though be-
fore the war a supporter of John Bell, was opposed to
the conservatives and a promoter of the war. His
powers were conspicuous, and the highest anticipa-
tions were entertained of his eminence as a states-
man, blasted two years later by his premature
death. Another interesting figure was the brave
soldier, Major-General Robert C. Schenck, who,
severely wounded at the second Bull Rim, resumed
a political career which he had earlier followed with
distinction, and was chosen from Ohio as the suc-
cessor of Vallandigham. He became chairman at
once of the committee on military affairs, and soon
succeeded Thaddeus Stevens at the head of the com-
mittee of ways and means, always showing a grasp
of mind and a capacity for effective statement
which won admiration. At this time, too, entered
James A. Garfield, also a major-general, who had
earned his promotion at Chickamauga. His health
was breaking under the hardships of campaigning,
and he now chose a field of service no less arduous
if less dangerous. William B. Allison, John A.
Kasson, Samuel J. Randall, and a young man of
thirty-three, James G. Blaine, were also among the
new members. Into the Senate came a representa-
tion of the loyal war governors, Morgan, of New
74 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1863
York; Sprague, of Rhode Island; and Ramsey, of
Minnesota; while among the Democratic accessions
were Reverdy Johnson, of Maryland, and Thomas
A. Hendricks, of Indiana.
The work of the thirty-seventh Congress had been
one of path-breaking, in framing a military policy,
devising ways and means to meet vast expenditures,
and undermining slavery as the root of all the
political evils. What was begun, the thirty-eighth
Congress must continue. The proposition for an
amendment of the Constitution making slavery
thenceforth impossible will be discussed further on.*
On the first day of the session, E. B. Washburne,
of Illinois, moved a restoration of the grade of lieu-
tenant-general, and supported his motion in a most
earnest and picturesque speech, making no secret
of the fact that he had Grant in view for the revived
dignity. In spite of some reasonable opposition
(Garfield, for instance, thought the movement pre-
mature), both Houses voted favorably, and on
February 29, 1864, the bill was signed.^ The mod-
est hero appeared in Washington, stammering and
abashed before plaudits, as he had never been be-
fore batteries. No one paints more vividly the
homeliness of the rather shabby, unimpressive fig-
ure than Richard H. Dana, who saw him at Wil-
lard's as he started out under his new responsibili-
ties. "I suppose you don't mean to breakfast
* See below, chaps, viii. and xiii.
2 S. Statutes at Large, XIII., 11.
CONCENTRATION
75
again till the war is over," remarked Mr. Dana,
jocosely. **Not here I sha'n't," said Grant, han-
dling his English as cavalierly as if it were a rebel
position.^
With his new rank was imposed upon Grant the
entire command of the Union armies, both East and
West. Sherman took the department of the Mis-
sissippi, McPherson succeeding him as commander
of the Army of the Tennessee. Halleck lost his
prominence, though still on duty as " chief -of -
staff," near the secretary of war. No incident con-
nected with these changes is more interesting than
the interchange of letters between Grant and Sher-
man.^ The general-in-chief accords to Sherman and
McPherson, and to his other lieutenants, the fullest
credit for their help in winning his successes, show-
ing in every simple phase a warm affection for these
friends and aids; to all which the impetuous Sher-
man responds with affecting heartiness: the tw^o
manly spirits, long working together, now stood in
a conjimction, the fruit of which was to be the sav-
ing of the nation.
As long as the national arms enjoyed a reasonable
success, it w^as certain that the support of Congress
would not fail. Vigorous means, as we have seen,
had been taken to keep up the number of the troops.
Those whose terms were about to expire were en-
couraged to "veteranize," or re-enlist, by an offer
1 Adams, R. H. Dana, II., 272.
' W. T= Sherman, Me^noirs, I., 426.
76 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1863
of a month's furlough; the draft was firmly en-
forced, the people acquiescing quietly in what had
at first seemed to many an outrage. The money
commutation allowed brought many millions into
the treasury. By this time the enlistment of
negroes had become a settled policy, no longer
objected to by soldiers in the field or conservatives
at home. Massachusetts sent two regiments of her
own colored citizens well equipped and officered,^
and in other northern states negroes were enlisted;
but the great body of colored troops were recruited
among the freedmen of the South. These did ex-
cellent service on military works, in garrison duty,
and often among fighters at the front: Lincoln
stated in his message, December 8, 1863, that there
were a hundred thousand colored men in the govern-
ment service, fifty thousand of whom had borne
arms in battle.^
It was natural and inevitable that there should
no longer be any such rush to the ranks as in 1861 :
the country was sadly familiar with the grimness of
war's visage; and the opportunities at home for
well-paid work were such as had rarely before been
known. The privilege of hiring substitutes sent
some very poor material into the ranks: but the
gaps were filled, and as spring drew near, a vast
multitude, on the whole patriotic, brave, well
trained, and well equipped, stood ready to force the
* Pearson, John A. Andrew, II., 69 et seq.
^Lincoln, Works (ed. of 1894), II., 454.
CONCENTRATION
77
struggle to a finish, too fondly believed to be within
easy reach.
After Vicksburg, the capture of Mobile seemed a
natural and feasible sequence, but Grant and Sher-
man were diverted, as has been seen, to Chatta-
nooga. Banks, in Louisiana, also would willingly
have gone eastward against the only Confederate
port left between Florida and Texas, but the govern-
ment formed another plan. A French army was
making progress in Mexico, and French intrigues
were already on foot designed to affect Texas. To
thwart Napoleon III., a firm hold on Texas seemed
necessary ; yet at the moment the North held noth-
ing in that state. ^ Banks was therefore ordered to
Texas, where, in the fall of 1863, after a failure at
Sabine Pass, he made important lodgments along
the coast at Brownsville on the Mexican border, and
at Matagorda Bay. It was thought in Washington
that a more satisfactory point of occupation would
be found in the interior, to be approached by the
Red River. Banks accordingly, in 1864, much
against his will, made preparations for such a cam-
paign as the spring approached, the only season
when the Red River is navigable.
Meantime, the programme of the year's battles
opened elsewhere. The important towns on the
Atlantic coast of Florida had for some time been
in the Federal grasp. With the false idea that a
Union sentiment existed in the interior, which
* Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, VIII., 285.
78 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
might be encouraged by the advance of an army
thither, Gillmore, commanding the department at
Charleston, was allowed to despatch such an expe-
dition. General Truman Seymour, a brave and ex-
perienced officer, was put in charge ; he entered upon
the task with misgivings, and soon met with mis-
fortune. Florida was not ripe for a Union move-
ment; and at Olustee, February 20, 1864, Seymour
was repulsed, losing eighteen hundred and sixty men*
in his vain effort.^
Grant's policy was to avoid wasting strength in
outskirt operations, and concentrate upon two main
lines of effort. The campaign of Olustee came
before he was in charge; and Banks's expedition
up the Red River could not well be checked in
March, when Grant assumed his wider duty. Di-
visions from the Thirteenth and Nineteenth Corps
were detailed, all that could be spared after making
secure the widely extended Federal conquests in
Louisiana and Texas; and in addition a fine body
of ten thousand men under A. J. Smith was sent
down from Vicksburg. Steele, also commanding
in Arkansas, was ordered southward to co-oper-
ate; while Porter's fleet of gun-boats was to as-
cend the stream on the flank of the advancing
army.
Though the effort was great, the signs from the
* T. W. Higginson, Army Life in a Black Regiment, 240.
^ War Records, Serial No. 65, pp. 274-356 (Florida Expe-
dition).
CONCENTRATION
79
outset were unfavorable/ The Vicksburg troops
were lent with strict directions that they must be
returned in a month: the water in the Red River,
though it was the season of flood, was almost too
low for navigation: Banks's statement of require-
ments necessary to success was neglected: he was
delayed while inaugurating, under the president's
orders, the new state government of Louisiana. His
lieutenants, among them W. B. Franklin, in the
background since Fredericksburg, were West Point
men, and recognized with no good grace the au-
thority of a superior from civil life, who, however
brave, had gained little credit in the field. Fortu-
nately for the Federals, conditions were no better
in the camp of their foes. Dick Taylor, an able
officer, who had sustained the Confederate cause
in Louisiana as well as circumstances allowed dur-
ing the trying year of 1863, was still on the ground,
but ranked by Kirby Smith, to whom had been
committed the whole trans-Mississippi. Both gen-
erals, with their forces, came together below Shreve-
port, high up on the Red River, and discord began
at once.^ Had Taylor's hands been free, the Federal
experience would probably have been rougher than
it was.
Banks pushed forward close to Shreveport, having
the fleet on his right. While advancing through
* War Records, Serial No. 61, pp. 162-638 (Red River Cam-
paign).
^Taylor, Destrtiction and Reconstruction, 148 et seq.
8o OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
pine barrens, in a region almost waterless, on a
single narrow road, his head of column was heavily-
assailed at Sabine Cross Roads, April 8, 1864, his
advance being routed and driven back. Next day,
at Pleasant Hill, the Federal fortunes were better,
but the army grew constantly more demoralized.
The losses were great, and dissensions paralyzed the
leadership. The river fell when by all precedents
it should have risen. Porter, apprehensive that his
ships would be caught in the shallows, hurried down
stream, and the army followed,, maintaining a
severe running battle, as far as Alexandria. The
month having expired, the ten thousand men lent
from Vicksburg were now recalled by peremptory
orders from Grant: a serious crisis confronted the
Federal force.
The one man who in this disastrous campaign
earned great credit was a Wisconsin lieutenant-
colonel, Joseph Bailey, whose feat was not one of
arms, but of engineering. The Red River at Alex-
andria is broken for a mile by rapids, passable by
steamers only at high water. When Porter reached
the falls with the fleet, he found only three feet and
four inches of water, whereas his larger vessels with
their heavy armament required at least seven feet.
Bailey, acting as engineer on Franklin's staff, was a
lumberman, and, recalling his experiences, proposed
a plan which met with opposition,* but which he
was allowed to try. Finding skilled helpers in regi-
^ Mahan, Gulf and Inland Waters, 204 et seq.
1 864] CONCENTRATION 8i
ments from Maine and the Northwest, he raised the
river to an adequate level by means of ingenious
''wing dams." On May 13, the ten great gun-boats
and the smaller craft were brought off in safety, for
Bailey *s engineering raised the river six and a half
feet; this, with what the channel before contained,
was ample for the purpose. While the worst was
in this way happily averted, Banks's campaign
badly failed. The recrimination between the "po-
litical general" and his West Point subordinates
was unusually bitter, only surpassed by the violent
quarrel between the Confederate leaders. The com-
ponents of the forces on both sides were soon ab-
sorbed elsewhere, and no serious engagement took
place afterwards in the trans-Mississippi.*
The Red River was practically the end of Banks,
who had been more unfortunate than blameworthy ;
for although retained in nominal command in
Louisiana, he was really superseded by E. R. Canby,
appointed to superintend a new department to
include the whole trans-Mississippi.
The lieutenant-general appointed the beginning
of May, 1864, as the moment for advance both in
the East and West. The probable Confederate
strength at that date is put at 477,233 men ''present
for duty"; to whom Grant opposed 662,345. The
statement of the adjutant-general as to Federals
"present equipped for duty," April 30, is 533,447:
* See Committee on the Conduct of the War, Report, 1864-
1865, pt. ii., 3-401.
VOL. XXI. — 6
82 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
a corresponding deduction from the Confederate
estimate so as to state the relative numbers in
commensurate terms, would make the total number
of southern combatants actually ready for battle
about four hundred thousand.^
Though Grant was concentrating as none of his
predecessors had done, a considerable dispersion of
force was unavoidable. In the North, thousands of
prisoners must be guarded, and much local disaf-
fection must be watched: Canada also, when mis-
fortune befell, showed a spirit semi-hostile, harbor-
ing many active enemies of the North. At the
Northwest and West, the Sioux and other Indian
tribes must be held in check, while the great areas
of conquered country both east and west of the
Mississippi, could not be left ungarrisoned. A num-
ber of small armies, therefore, aggregating a con-
siderable force, were scattered about. Dix com-
manded the troops in New York and New England,
Couch in Pennsylvania, Lew Wallace in Maryland,
Augur at Washington, Heintzelman the central
West, Pope in Minnesota, Rosecrans in Missouri,
Wright on the Pacific, Carleton in New Mexico.
Steele, who was charged with holding the trans-
Mississippi against Kirby Smith, had a large force;
as did also Banks (soon to be superseded by Canby),
who, it was hoped, might move against Mobile.
But for the most part the Federals were massed for
two main operations, which Grant designed should
^ Badeau, Military Hist, of Grant, II., 555, 556.
1 864] CONCENTRATION 83
be merged into one. Sherman confronted Johnston
on the northern border of Georgia, his force compris-
ing the Army of the Cimiberland under Thomas,
reinforced by the Army of the Tennessee imder
McPherson and the Army of the Ohio now imder
J. M. Schofield. Meade, with the Army of the
Potomac, faced Lee in Virginia, having on his left,
about Fortress Monroe, a force gathered from the
Carolinas and southeastern Virginia, which it was
hoped would support him powerfully, and on his
right still another force in the Shenandoah Valley,
which was expected also to lend an effective hand/
Where best among such conditions could the
commander-in-chief take his place? After the ex-
perience with Halleck, it was quite plain that he
should be somew^here in the field. "Do not stay
in Washington," wrote Sherman, March 10. "Hal-
leck is better qualified than you to stand the buffets
of intrigue and policy. Come out West. . . . For
God's sake, and your country's sake, come out of
Washington! I foretold to General Halleck before
he left Corinth the inevitable result to him, and
now I exhort you to come out West. Here lies the
seat of the coming empire, and from the West when
our task is done, we will make short work of Charles-
ton and Richmond, and the impoverished coast of
the Atlantic." ^ Grant did not stay in Washington,
neither did he go West. Recognizing the heaviest
^ Badeau, Military Hist, of Grant, II., 29, etc.
2 W. T. Sherman, Memoirs, I., 428.
V
84 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
and most important task to be the destruction of
Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia, he estab-
lished himself at the side of Meade.
Meade, since Gettysburg, while perhaps over-
cautious, had done nothing to forfeit the respect
and confidence of his countrymen.^ He followed
Lee as he retired southward, in the summer of 1863,
and was ready to try conclusions for a second time.
In September came the departure of Longstreet for
Chickamauga, and his absence made Lee wary;
before the month ended the departure of the two
Federal corps under Hooker, in the same direction,
restrained Meade. A contest of manoeuvres ensued,
in which Meade showed skill, ^ with now and then a
flash of battle, the most serious being an affair at
Bristoe Station, October 14, 1863, where Warren, com-
manding the Federal rear-guard, struck effectively
at A. P. Hill, and an affair at Rappahannock Sta-
tion, November 7, much to the credit of the Sixth
Corps. A general engagement was imminent near
the Chancellorsville battle-ground, at Mine Run,
but the moment passed unused and both armies
went into winter quarters. Lee was depressed after
Gettysburg and wished to retire, to which neither
his government nor army would listen. The failure
of Meade to secure marked success in his fall cam-
paign was perhaps due more to inefficient subor-
dinates than to his own defects: in particular the
* War Records, Serial No. 48, passim.
2 Pennypacker, Meade, chaps, xiv., xv.
CONCENTRATION
85
loss of Reynolds and the temporary disabling of
Hancock could not be made good.^ When the
lieutenant-general appeared, in March, 1864, in the
camp of ^leade, the latter begged to be allowed to re-
tire in favor of some commander tested and trained
imder Grant's own eye, magnanimously offering to
serve in a lower place : this Grant refused to permit,
ascribing to Meade all honor, and retaining him in
his high command. To Meade's high-minded con-
duct the course of Buell was in contrast. When
offered by Grant the command of a corps with Sher-
man or Canby, he declined to serve under men whom
he had once outranked, and was soon after mustered
out.2
^ General Warren before the Committee on the Conduct of the
War, Report, 1865, pt. i., 387.
2 Grant, Personal Memoirs, II., 50.
CHAPTER VI
ON TO RICHMOND
(May, 1864-JuNE, 1864)
WHEN the Army of the Potomac stood ready
for its campaign of 1864, on April 30, it counted
ninety-two thousand men and two hundred and
seventy-four guns. The Eleventh and Twelfth Corps
were still in the West ; the First and Third Corps had
been incorporated with others. There remained the
Second Corps under Hancock, now recovered from his
wounds, the Fifth under Warren, and the Sixth under
Sedgwick. Close by, but for a time not combined
with the others, was the Ninth Corps, under Burn-
side, about twenty thousand strong. Farther away,
but expected to co-operate immediately with the
Army of the Potomac, were the two wings, the
Army of the James, comprising the Tenth and
Eighteenth Corps, about forty thousand men, and
the force in the Shenandoah Valley and West Vir-
ginia, of about twenty - six thousand men. By
great misfortune both wings were inefficiently com-
manded— the Shenandoah force by Sigel, whom it
was necessary to consider on account of his sup-
posed influence with the Germans — the Army of the
i864j VIRGINIA CAMPAIGN
87
James, by Benjamin F. Butler, the War Democrat,
whose capacity for working ill, should he be thrust
aside, was dreaded.* Of both these men Grant had
no personal knowledge, and the responsibility for
their appointment must rest mainly with the ad-
ministration. To the short-comings of Butler, es-
pecially, the disappointments of the campaign now
about to begin are largely due.
To this great Federal army Lee opposed in the
immediate front but sixty thousand men, with two
hundred and twenty-four guns, under Longs treet,
Ewell, and A. P. Hill; but Beauregard was hastening
to his aid, bringing all the strength that could be
gathered in the Carolinas and along the coast. Lee's
inferiority in numbers was to some extent balanced
by the advantage that his work was to be defensive,
on interior lines, within a country friendly, and with
which he was familiar. He was thoroughly known
and idolized by his army, which he had led for two
years, and which from the corps commanders to the
rank and file was the selected strength of the Con-
federacy— as admirable a body of troops, perhaps,
as the world has ever known.
Grant, a complete stranger to his men, and also
to his officers, except as he had encountered here and
there a few in the old army, planned an advance
which would make it possible to receive supplies
from the Potomac and the Chesapeake, inlets from
which ran far into Virginia to points near his pro-
^ Badeau, Military Hist, of Grant, II., 44.
88 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
posed line of movement. His campaign was to be
aggressive and unremitting: ''I propose to fight it
out on this line if it takes all summer," was his grim
announcement. It was to be a warfare of the
hammer, of unceasing attrition.^
On the night of May 3, the Army of the Potomac
crossed the Rapidan, the Fifth Corps at Germanna
Ford, followed at once by the Sixth ; the Second Corps
crossed farther east at Ely's Ford; the great train
of five thousand wagons was divided between the
two fords ; the Ninth Corps advanced in rear of the
others, but all were south of the river in good time
on the 4th. All orders were issued through Meade,
though Grant was at hand and supreme. The two
commanders were and remained in harmony, but
the arrangement was unsatisfactory, causing a di-
vision of authority which sometimes proved unfort-
unate.^
Once across, the army was on familiar ground.
Warren, followed by Sedgwick, was presently at the
scene of Stonewall Jackson's last exploit, just a
year before; while Hancock stood at Chancellors-
ville. It was again the old tangle of the Wilderness,
a barren country, stripped at an earlier time of its
forests to feed long-abandoned furnaces and mines,
now covered with a second growth of thicket almost
^ Grant's report in War Records, Serial No. 67, p. 13 (From
the Rapidan to the James).
^ Ropes, "Grant's Campaign in Va. in 1864,'! Military Hist.
Soc. of Mass., Papers, IV., 377 et seq.
1 864] " VIRGINIA CAMPAIGN
89
impenetrable. Through the tract, worthless for
farming, with clearings only here and there, narrow
roads accommodated the infrequent travel. The
line of the Union advance was southward along a
track crossed by roads from the southwest, first a
turnpike, then a mile or two south a plank -road,
both leading from Orange Court House, the head-
quarters of Lee, towards Fredericksburg.
Grant would have been glad before fighting to
push through the Wilderness into the more open
country southward, where his superior numbers
would give him an advantage ; but Lee saw plainly
his opportunity, and struck at once. May 5. Ewell
marched down the turnpike upon Warren and Sedg-
wick, while A. P. Hill advanced by the plank-road
against Hancock, who, pushing on from Chancellors-
ville, had reached a point south of his colleagues.
Burnside, too, hastened forward, the design being to
place him between the turnpike and the plank-road ;
while on the other side Longstreet, whom Lee had
retained at Gordons ville, in view of a possible cross-
ing by the Federals farther up the Rapidan, forced
his march eastward, arriving opportunely.
I The conflict from the first was almost hand to
I hand. The Army of the Potomac, aware that the
t new general believed they had never been made to
j do their best in action, sought close quarters, which
their adversaries were not slow to grant. The battle
of Sedgwick and Warren against Ewell on the turn-
I pike was quite distinct from that of Hancock against
OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
Hill, and later Longstreet on the plank-road. Both
fights, however, were alike heavy and indecisive —
alternations of advance and retreat on either side,
the encompassing thickets making regular forma-
tions impossible: companies and squads breasted
one another — fragments into which brigades and
regiments were necessarily torn. The persistency on
both sides was thorough, the bloodshed unstinted.
It was on the plank-road that the combat came near-
est to a decision. At the junction here with a wood-
track called the Brock Road, Sedgwick, proceeding
with most of the Sixth Corps to the support of War-
ren, had left the division of Getty, who, when Han-
cock arrived, pressed hotly, supported by him,
upon A. P. Hill. Success for a time seemed likely.
Hill was forced back upon the path by which he
came; but Longstreet was at hand — the best of
troops and leadership at the critical moment.^ Lee
was in the front, and could with difficulty be in-
duced to retire to a less threatened station, after
a pledge from Longstreet to restore the day.
Guided by the sheriff of the county, who knew
every by-path, Longstreet, making a detour with
certain divisions, from the concealment of the brush
assailed Hancock's fiank, and almost brought about
a crushing of the Federal wing as complete as that
in Hooker's battle of the previous year. A strange
coincidence now befell. As Stonewall Jackson, at
the critical moment, fell by the fire of his own
* Longstreet, Manassas to Appomattox, 559 et seq.
i864] VIRGINIA CAMPAIGN
91
men, so now, Longstreet with his party, hurrying
along the plank-road, his impetuous colimms dis-
ordered as they charged, were mistaken for Federal
cavalry; whereupon the Twelfth Virginia fired a
volley, prostrating many. A Minie ball passed
through Longstreet 's right shoulder and neck; he
was borne off the field, waving his hat feebly with
his left hand that his disconsolate columns might
see he was yet alive. It has been claimed that a
Confederate victory might have been won but for
the striking down of Longstreet; but the strength
of the Army of the Potomac was there, and undis-
mayed. No successor could on the instant carry
out the complicated manoeuvre which was in prog-
ress, not even Lee, who presently assumed com-
mand. The opportunity passed, and Hancock's
men were soon rallied.^
Thus May 5 and 6 passed in ineffective strug-
gle. The Federal loss was 17.3 per cent, of their
number engaged, the Confederate loss 18.1 per
cent.^ Besides the disabling of Longstreet, the Con-
federates lost other generals, among them Micah
Jenkins, who since the wounding of Hood at Chicka-
mauga had ably led his division. The Federals lost
Wadsworth, and on May 9, the able and experi-
enced Sedgwick. May 7, Grant set out for Spott-
sylvania Court-House, hoping to pass round his adver-
* Longstreet, Manassas to Appomattox, 562; Sorrel, Recollec-
tions of a Confed. Staff Officer, 240.
92 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
sary's right : but Lee was there before him. Long-
street's corps, driven out of its bivouac by a forest-
fire, marched some hours earher than the orders
required, and by good luck was able to bar the
Federal advance; whereupon ensued a series of
combats as determined and as sanguinary as those
of the Wilderness. At this stage of the war, every
position was at once intrenched, the troops contriv-
ing m.arvellously, in the briefest time, out of rails,
stones, earth, whatever might be at hand, a shelter
from assault, rude but answering the purpose. Lee,
acting on the defensive, employed to the utmost this
warfare of the axe and spade. At Spottsylvania,
Grant found his adversary everywhere protected;
and though he did not hesitate to assault, gained no
lasting advantage.
Two attempts of this kind were especially brill-
iant, and promised at first success. On May 10,
Emory Upton, a young colonel of the Sixth Corps,
gained a lodgment within the enemy's works which
failed of results by not being supported. On May
12, Hancock's first division, tmder Francis C. Bar-
low, performed a feat of extraordinary gallantry.
Barlow charged near daybreak a point where the
Confederate line was thrust forward in a salient.
The crest was surmounted and crossed: the de-
fenders were captured right and left within the para-
pet : twenty cannon, thirty standards, four thousand
men, the ''best division in the Confederate army,"*
^ Henderson, Science of War, 325 (Wilderness Campaign).
1 864] VIRGINIA CAMPAIGN
93
with two generals, were in Federal hands. It
was, in fact, the Stonewall division, with its com-
mander, Edward Johnson. The Coniederate centre
appeared fairly broken; a few rods more and the
Army of Northern Virginia would be cut in two.
But a second line of works rose before the stormers,
well defended. The Federal supports, instead of
failing to come up, this time came up too soon and
too numerously: the crowd of men, disordered by
success, failed to make the best application of their
strength:^ Lee was at hand, putting himself in the
front to repel the danger. The men of Gordon's
division turned his horse backward, while a shout
arose from the ranks, ''General Lee to the rear!"
They refused to advance till Lee retired out of
danger.^
Then throughout the day raged a conflict surpass-
ing in its terrors. The assailants clinging to one
side of the w^orks they had captured faced the
defenders on the other: captures were made back
and forth by hauling men over the intervening
breastworks. Meantime a volleying went forward
so incessant and deadly that oak-trees, their trunks
severed by the balls, fell to the earth. ^ With thou-
sands more added to his losses, the Confederate list
being still larger,^ Grant again, May 19, swept round
* Barlow, in Military Hist. Soc. of Mass., Papers, IV., 254.
2 Gordon, Reminiscences of Civil War, 278.
^ Such a trunk nearly two feet thick is preserved in the National
Museum at Washington.
^ ^Livermore, Numbers and Losses, 112.
i
94 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
the Confederate right, only to confront his adversary
fixed in new strongholds.
A fortnight had now elapsed since the Army of
the Potomac crossed the Rapidan, and we must
look at the work of the other armies, which set out
at the same time, co-operation with which was an
essential part of Grant's campaign. In the Army of
the Valley, the force under Sigel, and a smaller body
under Crook and Averell farther west, advanced
as ordered. Crook accomplished results, reaching
southwest Virginia, destroying supplies, and break-
ing the railroad connection with Tennessee. Sigel's
operations were feeble: encountering opposition, he
was presently heard from in retreat, and soon after
was relieved of command.*
A much greater disappointment befell Grant in the
case of the Army of the James. Here Butler was in
command for reasons other than military. Grant
went to Fortress Monroe to make Butler's acquaint-
ance, and, we may believe, to form some conclusion
as to his capacity. Apparently, Butler impressed
him as clear-headed and forceful.^ At any rate,
Grant acquiesced in the selection, and thought to
make things secure by placing at the heads of the
Tenth and Eighteenth Corps, which together made
up the Army of the James, Q. A. Gillmore and W. F.
(Baldy) Smith, accomplished and experienced engi-
neer officers of the regular army. Smith, in par-
^ Grant, Personal Memoirs, II., 72, 142.
2 Butler's Book, chap. xiv.
1 864] VIRGINIA CAMPAIGN
95
ticular, had Grant's confidence, having served under
his own eye with brilhant efficiency at Chattanooga,
and Grant brought him east believing that there
was no officer better fitted than he to command a
corps. It was expected that Butler would admin-
ister his department, which included southeastern
Virginia and North Carolina, leaving the field oper-
ations to Smith's guidance.^ But Butler had no
thought of being an3rwhere except in the fore-
ground and actively directed the movements.
Charles Francis Adams, who as a cavalry officer
took part in this campaign, compares Grant's cam-
paign of 1864 to that of Napoleon in 181 5. While
Napoleon advanced upon Wellington, it was essen-
tial that Grouchy should detain Bliicher: so while
Grant engaged Lee, Butler was expected to defeat
or at least neutralize Beauregard,^ for to that able
soldier Jefferson Davis, after hesitation, assigned
the preservation of Lee's communications, and the
defence of Richmond from the south and east. As
to Grouchy so to Butler, the orders were vague,
much being necessarily left to the discretion of the
lieutenant. Beauregard did not arrive upon the
scene till May 10,^ and Butler, who had struck out
with great vigor, was on the verge of success. May
4, after a feint towards the York River, his two
* Grant to Butler, April 2, 1864, War Records, Serial No. 67,
p. 16.
^ Adams, Some Phases of the Civil War, 36 (pamphlet, 1905).
^ Roman, Beauregard, II., 199.
96 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
corps were transferred to City Point on the James,
occupying immediately Bermuda Hundred, a strong
position within a few miles of Richmond.
Here the fair beginning, a surprise to the Rich-
mond authorities, was frustrated by unwisdom.
The relation of the general to his lieutenants had
become in a high degree unpleasant; he held them
to be insubordinate West-Pointers who would in-
jure, if they could, a volunteer; they held him to be
headstrong, inexperienced, and incapable.^ Disap-
proving of his scheme of operations, they united in
recommending an advance upon Petersburg, a city
twenty-two miles south of Richmond and command-
ing its southern connections, which at the time was
unfortified and ungarrisoned. "The Grouchy of the
Wilderness Campaign," though his troops were
within three miles of Petersburg, May 9, rejected the
advice in an angry letter,^ ordering a movement in
another direction, which he claimed his orders fa-
vored. Had the advice of Smith and Gillmore been
followed, apparently nothing could have prevented
the capture of Petersburg. To avoid the loss of the
three great southern roads (to Danville, to Weldon,
and the south-side road), and the loss of Richmond,
Lee would have been forced to break up from be-
fore Grant and march at once southward. The
chance was missed; the demonstration of Butler
failed; Beauregard arrived with an army, and soon
^ Butler's Book, 649; for W. F. Smith's opinion, see Battles and
Leaders, IV., 206. ^ lYar Records, Serial No. 68, p. 35.
1 864] VIRGINIA CAMPAIGN 97
attacked successfully at Drewry's Bluff. The Army
of the James, instead of affording the help upon
which Grant had counted, was presently "bottled
up" * at Bermuda Hundred, as Grant later put it,
quite safe, but also quite unable to trouble the
peace of Richmond.
Meanwhile, Grant, struggling in his dreadful grap-
ple with Lee, reached out as it were to the south,
hoping to grasp the help for which he had made
provision. As campaign followed campaign, the
cavalry of the Army of the Potomac had constantly
grown in usefulness, until now it was a formidable
arm. Though Pleasonton, who had led it with
credit, and Buford, who had done so well at Gettys-
burg, had now disappeared, Averill was doing good
service with Crook in southwestern Virginia; and
Kilpatrick was soon to distinguish himself in Geor-
gia. Several forceful young officers worked to the
front — D. M. Gregg, Wesley Merritt, James H. Wil-
son, and George A. Custer. Grant was bent upon
having his troopers under the best leadership, and
placed Sheridan in command here, the only com-
rade from the West (except Rawlins) whom he had
at his side in any prominent position in the Army
of the Potomac. Meade's army remained entirely
under its old generals, except that at the head of
the cavalry rode Philip H. Sheridan, last seen by us
mounted upon the cannon at the climax of the bat-
tle of Missionary Ridge.
^ Grant, Personal Memoirs, II., 75,
VOL. XXI. — 7
98 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
As Grant, among almost total strangers, found
his environment not altogether congenial or fortu-
nate, so Sheridan at first was ill at ease and not
quite well received. He had in the Wilderness a
quarrel with Meade, in the heat of which he threw
up his command, but Grant interfered to prevent.*
In the woods the cavalry found small opportunity.
The embarrassing thickets, filled with infantry,
army wagons, and guns, left little scope for horse-
men along the encumbered tracks; but at Todd's
Tavern, near where Hancock received the blow from
Longstreet, Sheridan measured swords with Stuart
to some purpose. The latter was a factor whom
Grant was anxious to eliminate from the game;
great harm, too, would come to Lee if the railroad
between him and Richmond could be cut; above all,
it was important to connect with Butler, who was
relied upon to encircle Richmond on the south about
this time.
All this Sheridan must do, and May 9, eluding the
divisions of Lee as they manoeuvred for the defence
of Spottsylvania Court House, he was soon far on
his way. Reaching the Virginia Central Railroad,
Custer tore up ten miles of track, wrecking at the
same time locomotives, cars, stations, and supplies;
and soon after, in like fashion, the road from Rich-
mond to Fredericksburg was broken up. Sheridan
now hastened towards Richmond, within six miles
of which, at Yellow Tavern, he encountered Stuart,
* Sheridan, Personal Memoirs, I., 368.
1 864] VIRGINIA CAMPAIGN
99
prompt and bold in his defence. A hard battle en-
sued, in which, while the skill and gallantry were
equal, the Federal superiority in numbers told
powerfully. The Confederates were defeated, Stuart
himself being among the slain, a loss to the South
hardly less than that of Stonewall Jackson.^
The battle over, Sheridan pursued the division
of Fitzhugh Lee nearly to Richmond, pausing only
when the inner intrenchments were reached. Had
the Army of the James enveloped the city on the
south, as it might so easily have done, the hand ex-
tended by Grant would have met here a friendly
clasp. As it was, Sheridan could do nothing more
than elude his many foes, on the battle-fields of
two years before, coming down at last by devious
paths to Harrison's Landing, McClellan's old camps
on the James, with Butler opposite at Bermuda
Htmdred. A week had passed since the raid began ;
in another week the cavalry returned, Sheridan re-
porting to his chief May 24.
In the interval Grant was marching and ma-
noeuvring widely. Another move about the flank
of Lee brought the Army of the Potomac to the
North Anna, where its great adversary with fault-
less management. May 23, blocked its path once
more behind impregnable defences. Yet another
march brought Grant to the Chickahominy, with
Richmond almost in sight, but still unattainable.
The ground now occupied was precisely that of the
^ McClellan, /, K, B. Sttujrt, chap. xx.
100 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
early operations of the "Seven Days," but the two
armies had exchanged positions : while Lee held the
. neighborhood of Gaines's Mill, and the line which
Meade, as a brigadier in the Pennsylvania reserves,
had then maintained against A. P. Hill, Meade
now ranged the Army of the Potomac near Cold
Harbor, on an area over which Stonewall Jackson
and D. H. Hill had advanced to attack Fitz-John
Porter.^
The scene awoke sombre memories in the minds
of those much-tried veterans, whose associations
with this region were of the darkest. Lee stood at
Cold Harbor, intrenched more firmly than ever.
Since May 4, when the campaign began, the Federals
had made almost as many desperate assaults upon
impregnable positions as there were days; and all
to no purpose. It is probably Grant's worst mis-
take, one that always hung heavy upon his heart,
that he here resolved upon still another attack in
front." The Eighteenth Corps, under W. F. Smith,
lying idle at Bermuda Hundred after Butler's fail-
ure, had been transferred to the Army of the Poto-
mac, now badly in need of reinforcements. As the
Federals reconnoitred, no sign appeared that the
confronting works were assailable: but with mad
recklessness, on June 3 an assault was ordered "all
along the line." The obedience and gallantry were
unhesitating, the soldiers sometimes pathetically
1 Hosmer, Appeal to Arms {Am. Nation, XX.), 58.
2 Grant, Personal Memoirs, II., 171.
i864] VIRGINIA CAMPAIGN idi
pinning papers inscribed with their names to their
clothes that their bodies might later be identified.
The failure was utter. Barlow, with the first divi-
sion of the now more than decimated Second Corps,
effected a lodgement, as he had within the Spottsyl-
vania salient three weeks before: but it was only
for a moment; the line recoiled, leaving upon the
earth about twelve thousand dead and wounded
men.* Grant, with determination almost insane,
would once more have applied the hammer, whose
smiting head was not of steel, but flesh and blood;
his second thought was better and he desisted. The
Army of the Potomac lost in killed, wounded, or
captured, in the interval from the crossing of the
Rapidan to its arrival in June, near the James,
54,926 men. That Grant showed inhumanity tow-
ards his wounded at Cold Harbor is an accusation
without good foundation. 2 During the week after
the assault of Cold Harbor, Grant and his men,
baffled and depressed, marched once more south-
ward by the left, crossing the James, June 14, at
City Point.
June 6, Hunter, who succeeded Sigel in the
Shenandoah Valley, won a victory at Piedmont,
which made him master of the valley. June 8, he
made a junction at Staunton with Crook and Averell,
* Livermore, Numbers and Losses, 114.
^War Records, Serial No. 67, p. 188; see correspondence be-
tween Grant and Lee, War Records, Serial No. 69, pp. 638, 639,
666, 667; discussion by Colonel T. L. Livermore, Military Hist.
Soc. of Mass., Papers, IV., 457.
I02 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
from southwestern Virginia, marching thence with
promptness by Lexington to Lynchburg, before
which city he arrived on the i6th. The hope of its
capture, however, failed; for Lee, alarmed, sent
Breckinridge in haste back to the valley ; and, more
important, despatched Ewell's corps, twelve thou-
sand of his best men, under Early, to meet Hunter.
Grant, too, was watchful, sending off Sheridan with
two divisions towards Charlottesville to succor Him-
ter, whose whereabouts was uncertain. Sheridan
was forced to return without finding him, but
damaged as he could the Virginia Central Rail-
road, and fought a sharp cavalry battle with Wade
Hampton and Fitzhugh Lee, June 11, at Trevilian's
Station. Hunter, unsupported, living off the coun-
try, and out of ammunition, retired to the Ohio
River; whereupon Early set forth on an enterprise
to be mentioned presently.^
The Eighteenth Corps was no sooner back at City
Point, after Cold Harbor, than it was sent against
the defences of Petersburg, believed to be not
strongly held. W. F. Smith attacked June 15, but
not boldly; Hancock, who brought up the Second
Corps to his aid, through some oversight of Meade
not being informed what he was to do, failed to
carry out Grant's purpose.^ Petersburg might easily
have been captured. On the i6th, however, the
* War Records, Serial Nos. 70, 71.
2 Grant, Personal Memoirs, II., 189; but see Pennypacker,
Meade, 322, and Bache, Meade, 467.
i864] VIRGINIA CAMPAIGN 103
works were manned, and when the Federal onset
at last came it was beaten back. Nor was Grant
more successful in his efforts to capture the rail-
roads. On the Weldon road, June 22, A. P. Hill
foiled an attempt at seizure, defeating badly the
Second Corps, for the time without the leadership of
Hancock, whose Gettysburg wound had opened
afresh. Wilson, with the cavalry, was not more
fortunate, for though he tore up many miles of track
on both the South Side and Danville railroads, the
damage was soon repaired, and the expedition
got back only through hard fighting with serious
loss.^
Drought set in, during which the roads grew
heavy with dust, and the marching columns could
scarcely find water: but this put no bar upon the
warfare. Down the valley turnpike, Early with his
twelve thousand men marched, crossing the Potomac
and throwing Washington and the North into panic
after the old fashion of Stonewall Jackson. Grant
hastily despatched the Sixth Corps on transports
from the James ; and the Nineteenth Corps just ar-
rived at Fortress Monroe from Louisiana. July
8, Lew Wallace, with one division of the Sixth Corps
and an improvised army of militia, clerks, convales-
cents, whatever could be gathered about Baltimore
at a day's notice, made a brave stand at the Monoc-
acy near Frederick. He was defeated, but Grant de-
clared the defeat was worth many victories, for Early
1 War Records, Serial Nos. 80-82.
104 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
there lost a day, which saved the capital.* July 11,
Early was in the northern suburbs of Washington, but
as he hesitated before the bold front of the handful
that manned the works, the Sixth and Nineteenth
Corps, just arrived, occupied the lines. It was the
last, and also the worst, scare which the city under-
went . Early retired to the valley, but not to inaction . ^
One more mortification occurred for Grant and
the Army of the Potomac in this gloomy mid-
summer. A regiment of Pennsylvania coal-miners,
directed by their lieutenant-colonel, Henry Pleasants,
constructed a mine under a part of the Petersburg
intrenchments, which, July 30, was ready for ex-
plosion. Grant declares that most careful direc-
tions were laid down, which, if followed, would have
made sure the capture of the city through the
breach, during the resulting panic. The mismanage-
ment, for which Burnside was mainly accused, was
almost incredible: the preparations ordered were
neglected; for the storming column inferior troops
with an incapable general were selected. The mine
exploded with an effect of which even to-day, after
forty years, the so-called crater is an appalling
evidence, and the way was clear to the heart of the
city. But the stormers, instead of advancing, hud-
dled into the crater, while the appointed leader
sheltered himself in a bom.b-proof in the rear. The
* Grant, Personal Memoirs, II., 196, 197.
2 War Records, Serial No. 70 (Lynchburg and Shenandoah
Valley Campaigns) .
i864] VIRGINIA CAMPAIGN 105
defenders soon recovered spirit, the division of
Mahone being in the front. About four thousand
Federals were sacrificed and no advantage gained.^
The Federals had now sacrificed, before and
about Petersburg, more than fifteen thousand men,
and it was sadly significant that the loss in prisoners
was sometimes very large as compared with the
casualties. It meant that the Army of the Potomac
had deteriorated : the fighters of the Wilderness and
Spottsylvania were slain or crushed in spirit; while
the fiood of recruits that kept the numbers full, men
obtained by the draft, and substitutes gained by
high bounties, were not the stuff for soldiers. When
discouragement was deepest, Sheridan was appoint-
ed, August 7, to command the army in the valley of
Virginia, a new military division being constituted.
The stifling and melancholy summer approached its
end; but as to Virginia there was no lifting of the
anxiety. Many causes might be assigned for the
Federal failures, but the chief one was the devotion
and bravery of the southern troops and the ex-
traordinary ability with which they were directed.
1 Grant, Personal Memoirs, II., 202; War Records, Serial Nos.
81, 82 (Court of Inquiry) ; Committee on the Conduct of the War,
Report, 1864-1865, pt. i., 525. For the controversy over Grant's
campaign of 1864, see Ropes, " Grant's Campaign in Va. in 1864,"
Military Hist. Soc. of Mass., Papers, IV., 363; McClellan, Grant
versus the Record; Badeau, Military Hist, of Grant, II.; Liver-
more, "Grant's Campaign against Lee," Military Hist. Soc. of
Mass., Papers, IV., 407; C. F. Adams, Some Phases of the Civil
War, 32-46; Humphreys, Virginia Campaign of '64 and '6^;
Henderson, Science of War, chap, xi.; Long, Lee, chap. xvii.
CHAPTER VII
THE ATLANTA CAMPAIGN
(May, 1864-AuGUST, 1864)
SHERMAN, in 1864, was early active. Febru-
ary 3 he marched from Vicksburg with twenty
thousand men for Meridian, in eastern Mississippi,
where the Mobile and Ohio railroad crosses the line
from Jackson eastward, forming an important stra-
tegic point which Polk had been set to guard. Sher-
man directed matters with characteristic energy, de-
stroying the roads and the Confederate resources
in a region till then not reached by Federal power;
but he failed in his hopes to dispose of Forrest, who
frustrated the efforts of a cavalry column from
Tennessee.^ The elevation of Grant to supreme
command brought promotion to Sherman: March
18 he assumed his large responsibilities — the con-
trol of four great western armies, with headquarters
at Chattanooga.^
The Confederate leaders were in anxious consulta-
tion over plans for retrieving the disasters of 1863,
no one of which plans seemed so promising as a
* W. T. Sherman, Memoirs, I., 418 et seq.
Ubid., II., 5.
i864] ATLANTA CAMPAIGN 107
combined and rapid movement northward towards
the Ohio River. In this, Bragg's old **Army of
Tennessee," uniting with Longstreet, and receiving
other reinforcement, it was beHeved might occupy
middle Tennessee and Kentucky, and draw north-
ward the Federal armies whose range in the South
had become so wide. Davis and his new chief of
staff, Bragg, as well as Lee, Longstreet, Hood, and
other energetic spirits, regarded such an enterprise
as hopeful : ^ but it was never entered upon, prob-
ably because Johnston, who succeeded Bragg in the
command in the Mississippi Valley, was too cautious
to make a rash movement. Many obstacles must
be removed before such a scheme could be prudent-
ly undertaken. While the consultation progressed,
the initiative went to the Federals, and the cam-
paign took place in the South and not in the North.
Longstreet, as we have seen, returned to Lee: while
Johnston concentrated to meet what stood before
him.
The Confederacy had been sundered the previous
year by the capture of the Mississippi River; the
new Federal scheme was to sunder it once more by
driving a line of conquest southward to the impor-
tant city of Atlanta, and thence still farther into the
Confederacy.^ To accomplish this task, to Sherman
^ Hood, Advance and Retreat, 88 et seq. ; Longstreet, From
Manassas to Appomattox, 544; Johnston, Narrative, chap, x.;
Davis, Confed. Government, II., 548.
2 War Records, Serial No. 72, p. 3 (Grant's Report).
loS OUTCOME OP THE CIVIL WAR [1864
were assigned nearly a hundred thousand infantry,
comprising the Army of the Cumberland, under
Thomas, of sixty thousand; the army of the Ten-
nessee, under MePherson (who now succeeded Sher-
man in that post) , of twenty-five thousand ; and the
Army of the Ohio, of fifteen thousand; besides
cavalry and 254 guns/ The Army of the Ohio was
under John M. Schofield, a new commander who
now comes into the foreground. He was of the
West Point class of 1853, in which MePherson had
been first scholar, Schofield sixth, Sheridan thirty-
fourth, and Hood forty -fourth.^ He had filled
a post which was full of trouble in administering
the Department of Missouri, where the enemy was
scarcely more annoying than the jarring local fac-
tions. This work he had gladly given up shortly
before, to accept command in east Tennessee; and
now he led his army to Sherman's side, where he
was to prove himself a good soldier.
Johnston stood some thirty miles south, with
Dalton for a centre, his army in two corps under
Hardee and Hood : early in the campaign the num-
ber was raised to seventy-five thousand by the
arrival of the corps of Polk from Mississippi, and
by other reinforcements.^ He had an efficient force
of cavalry under Wheeler. Both armies were made
up for the most part of seasoned veterans : the corps
* Livermore, Numbers and Losses, 119.
2 Cullum, Register of U. S. Mil. Acad., arts. Schofield, etc.
3 Battles and Leaders, IV., 247 et seq.
i864] ATLANTA CAMPAIGN 109
commanders on both sides were men sifted out for
their positions through the severest experience: in
the subordinate ranks the rawness of the earHer
years disappeared. The proportion of the Con-
federates to the Federals was about seven to ten.
Operating, as the Confederates did, in a famiHar
and friendly country, on interior lines, on the de-
fensive, against a foe hundreds of miles from his
base, in a hostile country and always the assailant,
their inferiority in numbers was balanced by the
advantages of position.
Sherman and Johnston had already proved them-
selves great leaders, but as they stood now face to
face, they were in some ways strongly contrasted.
Sherman was forty-four years old, tall, lithe, erect,
thrilling with vitality, quick to impatience, but
genial, every sentence and gesture indicating alert-
ness of mind and soundness of judgment. Ag-
gressiveness was very apparent in him — the quali-
ties of an offensive leader. Johnston, whose mother
was a niece of Patrick Henry, was fifty-seven years
old, below the middle height, compact in build, cold
in manner, of measured, accurate speech, a dark,
firm face surmounted by an intellectual forehead.
He was quite at ease under his high responsibilities.^
The wounds received at Fair Oaks were now thor-
oughly healed, and he was in full vigor. As Sher-
man was in temperament very sanguine, Johnston
by nature and through experience was cautious
^ Freeman tie, Three Months in the Southern States, 116.
no OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
and wary. While dominating his environment by-
ability and weight of character, he did not invite
friendships ; he exacted deference and a recognition
of his authority, and when these were withheld
became disputatious. He was always at cross-pur-
poses with some one, and his Narrative is one long
controversy, on the one hand with Jefferson Davis
and the Richmond superiors, on the other with
subordinates who ventured to dispute the wisdom
of his methods. With so much wariness a defensive
attitude would be the natural outcome; and this
campaign was destined to secure for Johnston a high
place as a Fabian.
While the Federal army was numerous and well
equipped, it had in truth enormous difficulties to
face. The region in which it operated, northern
Georgia, was wooded and mountainous, in great part
thinly settled, and quite unsurveyed and unmapped.
The hundred thousand men, with thirty or forty
thousand animals, must be supplied mostly from
the Ohio River, by a single track of railroad running
from Louisville to a great permanent depot at Nash-
ville; thence to Chattanooga to a secondary depot;
thence on towards Atlanta. Up to the very pre-
cincts of Louisville, these communications were ex-
posed to the enemy, even while Sherman was pre-
paring to start. Forrest, now developed into a
matchless commander of cavalry, appeared at Pa-
ducah on the Ohio River; this time he was beaten
off, his troopers capturing Fort Pillow as they re-
i864] ATLANTA CAMPAIGN iii
tired, April 13, and refusing quarter to the negro
soldiers in its garrison.^ His return even thus far
north was to be feared; while as regards the more
southern stretches, the line betw^een Nashville and
Chattanooga was certain to be often attacked, and
below Chattanooga might be broken any day.
Along this thread of connection, one hundred and
thirty cars, carrying ten tons each, must proceed
every day, in order that Sherman's army might be
fed and clothed; a still larger service must be pro-
vided if supplies were to be accumulated against a
blockade. To preserve this vital cord every possible
arrangement was made; heavy detachments were
stationed in the important towns; guards sheltered
in block -houses watched every important bridge
and culvert.^ Two men from civil life, carefully
selected, were appointed to superintend. Since the
work of these men was quite as important as that
of generals in the field, they should be honored in
the record. W. W. Wright was a constructing en-
gineer, to whom the rank of colonel was given for
convenience, together with a force of two thousand
men. His task was to keep the road in repair, a
duty thoroughly performed. The destruction from
natural wear and tear, in track and rolling-stock,
necessarily great in view of the demands, was made
good without delay ; while the wreck made by raiders
and the retiring enemy, of bridges, rails, tanks, and
^ War Records, Serial No. 57, p. 518 et seq.
^ W. T. Sherman, Memoirs, II., 10.
112 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
locomotives, was repaired as if by magic, from du-
plicate material kept on hand. The telegraph fol-
lowed the army even to the battle-field, the elec-
tricians carrying wire and insulators in wagons up
to the firing-line. Along the road thus held open
by Colonel Wright, a skilled railroad operator. Colo-
nel Adna Anderson, directed the passage of thou-
sands of tons demanded for every day's consump-
tion, with such promptness that the army was never
in a strait.*
The beginning of May, 1864, came before the many
absent troops (furloughed for a month, it will be
remembered, on condition that they should "veter-
anize") were fully returned to the ranks; but Sher-
man set forth ^ on the day appointed in conference
with Grant, May 3. Two days later he faced John-
ston, intrenched at Dal ton, the Army of the Cum-
berland in the centre and the Army of the Ohio to
the east, while to the Army of the Tennessee was
assigned the work of flanking the Confederate left,
the first manoeuvre of the campaign.
The enemy was much too strong to be attacked in
front ; but when it presently appeared that his posi-
tion might be turned, McPherson made his way
through Snake Creek Gap towards Johnston's rear,
threatening his communications at Resaca and
opening a path for the whole Federal army about
the Confederate left. Johnston thereupon aban-
* Cox, Military Reminiscences, II., io6.
^War Records, Serial Nos. 72-76 (Atlanta Campaign).
i864] ATLANTA CAMPAIGN 113
doned Dalton, retiring southward to Resaca, where
he occupied strong works previously constructed,
and faced his foe again. Such was the procedure
during nearly two months, Johnston slowly falling
back from position to position, each a stronghold
skilfully selected and fortified beforehand; out of
each one of which in turn he was flanked by Sher-
man. Two months of such fighting brought the
army, after a progress of more than a hundred miles,
in sight of Atlanta. Let it be noted that in the con-
temporaneous Virginia campaign, though Lee once,
in the battle of the Wilderness, attacked fiercely,
almost recklessly, he afterwards, like Johnston, re-
tired and fortified, while Grant outflanked him until
Richmond was at hand. The two campaigns were
essentially alike.
Sherman believed that McPherson made an error
in not attacking Resaca. That point on his ap-
proach was but weakly held, and might have been
captured.^ As it was, the Federals gained small ad-
vantage : here, too, Johnston was still further favored,
for Polk reinforced him from the west.
Two streams large enough to obstruct an army,
the Oostanaula and the Etowah, now crossed Sher-
man's path ; running southwest the streams unite to
form the Coosa River, at which point stands Rome,
I a Confederate centre for supplies and manufactures.
I Sherman crossing the Oostanaula, May 15, captured
Rome, and through the cotmtry eastward, more
^ W. T. Sherman, Memoirs, II., 34.
VOL. XXI — 8
114 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
open than the Dalton neighborhood, again threat-
ened Johnston's Hne of supply. The latter fell back
as before, yielding Calhoun, Adairsville, and King-
ston, and giving no opportunity for attack.^ Sher-
man, most anxious for a battle on open ground,
where his superior numbers would tell, ran risks to
invite an encounter. May 18, at Cassville, his corps
became somewhat perilously separated as they
marched; and Johnston, who was eagerly watching
for a false step, prepared to attack. Polk and Hood,
who felt their troops were ill-placed, dissuaded him,
preventing a stroke that might have been successful.^
A week after, at New Hope Church, Howard with
the Fourth Corps, and Hooker with the Twentieth
(into which had been consolidated the old Eleventh
and Twelfth), assaulted unsuccessfully the strongly
intrenched Confederates. May 28, Hardee attacked
the Federals with no better success.^ In the ma-
noeuvres which follow^ed, Sherman seized the railroad
to Atlanta, crossing the Etowah, and establishing a
depot at Acworth. Johnston withdrew to the neigh-
borhood of Marietta.
In the almost constant skirmishing and battles of
this first month of the campaign, the Federal loss in
killed, wounded, and missing, was little short of
twelve thousand, while that of the Confederates ap-
* Cox, Atlanta, chap. vi.
2 W. T. Sherman, Memoirs, II., 65; Johnston, Narrative, 323;
Hood, Advance and Retreat, chaps, v., vi.
3 Cox, Atlanta, 84.
i864] ATLANTA CAMPAIGN 115
proached ten thousand. The Federal number was
kept up by the arrival of the Seventeenth Corps,
under Frank P. Blair. While Sherman had gained
much ground, as yet he had won no permanent ad-
vantage, and his operations seemed no more effective
than did those of Grant at the same moment in Vir-
ginia. Meantime his connection with the Ohio,
maintained by the slender line of railroad through
Georgia, Tennessee, and Kentucky, grew more pre-
carious with each advance.
The prudent Johnston had the fact well in view,
that the halting progress of the Federal armies both
in East and West was powerfully stimulating dis-
affection throughout the North; he believed if he
could hold his own for a while longer, he might do
much to bring about the downfall of the Lincoln
administration in the presidential campaign now at
hand.^ In June, severe rains prevailed, during which
the streams became floods and the country a morass.
While Sherman with his mired corps was prohibited
from action, Johnston stood before Marietta on Kene-
saw Mountain and heights adjoining. As hereto-
fore, his engineers planned well, and having at
comm.and the Georgia militia and thousands of im-
pressed negroes, he had prepared in advance a shel-
ter for the Confederate army. The respite gained
through the storms was used to make the works
more than ever formidable. Sherman, fuming at
delay, apprehending attacks upon his communica-
^ Johnston, Narrative, 363.
ii6 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
tions by Johnston's unemployed men, or, indeed, the
detachment of a force to Lee in Virginia, which he
was especially charged to prevent, resolved upon a
direct assault.
At this moment disappears from the stage Lieu-
tenant-general Leonidas Polk. While a cadet at
West Point, he was converted under the influence
of the chaplain. Reverend C. P. Mcllvaine, after-
wards bishop of Ohio, taking orders after graduation
in the Protestant Episcopal Church, and becoming
bishop of Louisiana.^ He early took up arms for
the South, not relinquishing his sacred ofQce. It
throws an interesting light upon the men w4th whom
we are dealing to read that a few days before his
death, as they were riding together, the bishop was
told by his fellow lieutenant-general. Hood, that he
had never been received into the communion of
the church, and he begged that the rite might be
performed.^ The bishop arranged for the cere-
mony at once — at Hood's headquarters, a tallow
candle giving light, the font a tin basin on the
mess-table. The staff were there as witnesses ; Hood,
"with a face like that of an old crusader,"^ stood
before the bishop. Crippled by wounds received at
Gaines's Mill, at Gettysburg, and at Chickamauga,
the warrior could not kneel, but bent forward on his
crutches. The bishop, not robed, but girt with his
^ Cullum, Register of U. S. Military Acad., art. Polk.
2 W. M. Polk, Leonidas Polk, II,, 329, 330.
3 Mrs. Chesnut, Diary from Dixie, 230.
1 864] ATLANTA CAMPAIGN
soldier's belt, administered the rite. A few days
later Johnston was baptized in the same simple
way. Now the bishop's time had come: June 14,
while reconnoitring on Pine Mountain, a Federal
cannon-ball struck him full upon the breast and
his life of devotion was ended.
As June drew near its end, the sun shone out, the
roads dried, and Sherman resumed activity. Rest-
lessly reconnoitring the hostile lines, he fixed upon
the point which seemed weakest, and on June 27,
1864, the assault was delivered with a loss of two
thousand;^ the failure was complete; whereupon
Sherman, making the best of the roads now becom-
ing firm, returned to his former methods. Manoeu-
vring again by the right, he presently crossed the
Chattahoochee, a considerable stream, and now had
Atlanta in full view. But the unconquered John-
ston anticipated him; withdrawing as before, he
occupied previously prepared lines more formidable
than ever.
During the second month of this campaign, the
tale of Sherman's loss in killed, wounded, and miss-
ing was seven thousand five hundred; for the Con-
federates, probably seven thousand.^ Aside from
the great battle at Kenesaw, the skirmishing in the
rain had been constant ; and although at this stage of
the war even the skirmish-line was elaborately forti-
fied as soon as occupied, so close and deadly was the
conflict that a daily average of two hundred went
^ Livermore, Numbers and Losses, 121. ^ Cox, Atlanta, 351.
ii8 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
to grave and hospital. Yet the temper of both
armies remained buoyant; neither entertained the
thought of failure; each followed its general with
confidence unshaken.
The weight of authority favors the view that the
retreat of Johnston before Sherman was a master-
stroke of military art, and that his removal from
command, which now took place, was a grave calam-
ity to the Confederacy, and one of the worst of
many blunders committed by Jefferson Davis in his
delusion that he possessed good military judgment.*
Hood, who was appointed to succeed Johnston,
criticised this policy severely, and Davis presents
his side with dignity and force. ^ In truth, the course
of the Richmond government can be palliated;
Johnston, estranged from them, while serving them
ably and with perfect fidelity, maintained always
an attitude sullen and unfriendly. While reporting
with exactness what happened, he was silent as to
his expectations and purposes — a reticence which
irritated and embarrassed. A little frankness and
sympathy on his part towards Bragg and Davis,
whom he left in doubt as to whether or not he
meant to defend Atlanta, would probably have
kept him in his place. ^
* See Wood and Edmonds, Civil War in U. 5., 392; testi-
mony of Hardee and Stewart, corps commanders, in Johnston,
Narrative, 365 et seq. ; Pollard, Lost Cause, 543.
2 Hood, Advance and Retreat, chaps, iv.-ix.; Davis, Confed.
Government, 11., chap, xlviii.
^ Cox, Military Reminiscences, 11., 275.
i864] ATLANTA CAMPAIGN 119
From Sherman down, there was not a man in the
Federal army who did not hear with joy that John-
ston was no longer in command ; and it is impossible
to read his Narrative without feeling that the cause
of the Union escaped a great peril. Four hundred
miles now stretched between Sherman's hundred
thousand men and their base at Louisville, the line
throughout open to attack, with troopers like For-
rest sure to be let loose upon the communications.
Johnston was displaced for doing in Georgia pre-
cisely what in Virginia had added to the fame of
Lee — falling back upon the post he was set to de-
fend, while his adversary with enormous waste of
life and resources was no nearer beating the army
or capturing the city. Johnston insisted upon the
wisdom of protracting the campaign with reference
to its effect upon the northern presidential election.
Had Atlanta been held during the fall by a con-
tinuance of this Fabian policy, probably the party
which at the North declared the war to be a fail-
ure would have come into power, and the cause
of the South might have secured a new consider-
ation.*
Johnston's policy was not purely defensive. He
hoped and watched from the first for a moment
when his adversary would lay himself open and he
might strike with effect. At Cassville came this op-
portunity, missed through the reluctance of his lieu-
tenants to run the risk. A second chance opened
^ Johnston, Narrative, 355 et seq.
120 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
before Atlanta, in the very moment of his dismissal,
and Johnston confided his plan to Hood, as the
latter stepped into his place. Sherman's three
armies now immediately before the city, advancing
near Peach-Tree Creek, became separated, a wide
gap opening between Thomas and McPherson.
Hood, assuming command on July 18, 1864, following
his predecessor's suggestion, on the 20th threw his
army into the opening, to the great peril of Sher-
man. Hood had courage, but never great skill,
and was beaten off by severe fighting; Johnston
would have done better. July 22, Hood tried again
in the northern suburbs of Atlanta. Hardee, get-
ting into the rear of the Army of the Tennessee, made
an attack of which the issue was for a time doubtful.
McPherson, in the moment of surprise, rode into
the skirmish-line of Cleburne's advancing division.
They called to him to surrender; but raising his
hat as if in salute, he turned his horse to gallop
away, but fell with a mortal wound.
This was the worst calamity of the day, but there
was a heavy sacrifice of less important lives before
the battle ended. A week later, July 28, while
Sherman, reaching out to the southwest, attempted
to seize the railroads on which Atlanta depended.
Hood delivered a third blow at Ezra Church — but
like the rest it was manfully encountered and
turned aside, again by the Army of the Tennessee, '
with Howard at the head in place of McPherson.
Hood's aggressive policy was not resvilting well, his
1 864] ATLANTA CAMPAIGN
own losses for July being larger than those he
inflicted. August, like July, was a month of severe
fighting. Stoneman, despatched southward with
cavalry, in the hope that besides injuring the enemy
he might reach Andersonville and set free the thirty-
two thousand prisoners whose condition was a mat-
ter of great concern to the North, quite failed of
large results. To save his main force, he sacrificed
himself with a few followers, facing imprisonment —
"a chivalrous act, which did not make impression
when it afterwards appeared that the surrender was
to an inferior force, and quite needless.^ At the
end of the month there were severe encounters
about Jonesboro, Sherman struggling as before to
cut off Hood from Macon and Montgomery as he
had already done from Augusta. September i,
Atlanta was still holding out; Lincoln's anxiety
had not ceased, and the people feared that the out-
pour of blood and treasure in Georgia, as well as in
Virginia, would lead to no result. Since the advance
from Chattanooga, Sherman had lost thirty-five
thousand men, while inflicting upon his enemy a
loss as heavy. It was a time of great darkness,
and the country knew not that it was the darkness ■
that precedes the daw^n. On August 3 1 , the Demo-
cratic convention at Chicago adjourned after pro-
claiming that the war was a failure,^ and on that
day it seemed to the world that neither Grant nor
* Cox, Atlanta, 189.
2 McPherson, Polit. Hist, of the Great Rebellion, 417.
122 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
Sherman had accomplished anything to prove the
declaration false. Just in time, September 2, came
the sunburst: Hood evacuated Atlanta, and the
Twentieth Federal Corps took possession.
CHAPTER VIII
ATTEMPTS AT RECONSTRUCTION
(1863-1864)
WHEN once the country was involved in war,
debate became secondary to the wielding of
weapons: but from the first there were underlying
difficulties which must come up if the Federal gov-
ernment finally asserted its supremacy. Was the
arbitrary control of individuals in the North, away
from the scene of hostilities, to have the ultimate
sanction of the supreme court and of public opinion ?
Were those engaged in making war on the United
States ultimately to be put on civil trial for treason ?
Were the enactments and executive acts against
slavery, forged in the heat of contest, to stand after
peace should be restored ? Were the states, as fast
as they acknowledged the impossibility of getting
out of the Union, to be restored at once to their
former status?
The extent of the war powers of the government
was a question warmly discussed in Congress and
outside. One writer on the subject gravely claimed
that, ''It was intended by . . . the Constitution . . .
that the powers of Government in dealing with
124 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1863
civil rights in time of peace should be defined and
limited: but the powers to provide for the general
welfare and the common defence in time of war
should be unlimited." ^ During 1863 the suspen-
sion of the habeas corpus, and other invasions of
ordinary private rights, were regulated by statute
and by practice; the president's earlier acts were
covered by a kind of statute of indemnity, his au-
thority to suspend the habeas corpus definitely ad-
mitted: but the sentiment of the cotmtry was
against arrest and confinement without some spe-
cific charge. Nevertheless, conduct in the govern-
ment, which at first appeared arbitrary, thenceforth
passed unchallenged.^
As for slavery, the Republican majority in the
House in 1 863-1 864, though only twenty, was
radical and energetic. Not satisfied even with the
Proclamation of Emancipation, on December 14,
1863, James M. Ashley, of Ohio, like Lincoln tall and
uncouth, but possessed of political shrewdness and
moral earnestness, introduced a momentous measure
— namely, to submit to the states in proper consti-
tutional fashion, with the approval of two-thirds in
each House of Congress, a thirteenth amendment
to the Constitution abolishing slavery in the United
States.^
* Whiting, War Powers and the Constitution, 27.
2 Dunning, Essays on' the Civil War, 62.
^ Cong. Globe, 38 Cong., i Sess., 19; John Sherman, Recollec-
lions, 277 et seq.
1 864] ATTEMPTS AT RECONSTRUCTION 125
When the war began, not one-tenth of the people
of the country would have favored immediate and
unconditional abolition; but in the three years'
struggle sentiment ripened rapidly.^ Congress was
throughout much in advance of the people; while
the president held in check the legislature, he also
counselled and led the country, which in the school
of events was learning that he was the main agent
to bring about a happy consimimation. The meas-
ure of Ashley was referred to the judiciary com-
mittee, which at a later date recommended its sub-
stance as a thirteenth amendment: a test vote on
a resolution to table stood 79 for the amendment
and 58 against it, an evidence that a two-thirds vote
in favor of such a measure could not be secured in
the House.
January 13, 1864, Senator John B. Henderson, of
Missouri, proposed in the Senate a joint resolution
to abolish slavery throughout the United States by
a thirteenth amendment to the Constitution, which
February 10 was reported by Lyman Trumbull, of
Illinois, in these words: ''Neither slavery nor in-
volimtary servitude, except as a punishment for
crime w^hereof the party shall have been duly con-
victed, shall exist in the United States or any place
subject to their jurisdiction." The spokesman of
the opposition was Garrett Davis, of Kentucky, who
proposed to amend by excluding the descendants
of negroes on the maternal side from all places of
^ Blaine, Twenty Years, I., 504 et seq.
126 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
office and trust under the government of the United
States. He proposed at the same time an amend-
ment (a slap at the section from which so much
originated of which he disapproved) consoHdating
the six New England states into two, to be called
East and West New England. In the debate that
followed, Trumbull ascribed to slavery the present
misfortunes of the country, and earnestly pleaded
for its removal. Clark, of New Hampshire, criti-
cised the Constitution, lamenting its recognition of
slavery, to which he also traced the public woe.
On the other hand, Saulsbury, of Delaware, justified
slavery from history and Scripture, citing both
Old and New Testament authority in its sanction;
while Hendricks, of Indiana, objected to amending
the Constitution while eleven states were unable to
make themselves heard in the matter. The debate
lasted from March 28 to April 8, when a vote of 38
to 6 in favor of the measure was taken.*
When Henderson's resolution was submitted to
the House, issue was again joined, and the test vote
stood 76 to 55, the necessary two-thirds still want-
ing. It was, however, vigorously debated, Morris,
of New York, Ingersoll and Arnold, of Illinois, and
George S. Bout well, of Massachusetts, standing out
among the Republicans; while among the Dem-
ocrats Samuel J. Randall, of Pennsylvania, and
George H. Pendleton, of Ohio, were especially able.
^ Cong. Globe, 38 Cong., i Sess., 13 13 et seq.; Blaine, Twenty
Years, I., 506.
i864] ATTEMPTS AT RECONSTRUCTION 127
Randall exclaimed that the policy pursued was
uniting the South and dividing the North, which
could not be gainsaid ; ^ while Pendleton argued with
acuteness that three-fourths of the states could not
by any technical process either establish or abolish
slavery in all the states ; that the power to amend
meant not the power to revolutionize, and it was
nothing less than a revolution which was under dis-
cussion.
The vote on the passage of the amendment, taken
June 15, 1864, stood 93 to 65 : the bill was evidently
growing in favor, but did not yet command the
necessary two-thirds. Ashley, who from the first
had steered the measure, by an adroit manoeuvre
made sure of its thorough discussion by the peo-
ple: he voted with the opposition; then, after the
announcement, using his parliamentary privilege,
entered upon the Journal a motion to reconsider
the vote, and declared that the question should go
before the country, and that he would bring it up
in the following December, at the next session.^
The matter thus became a live issue in the presi-
dential canvass just beginning.^
The financial situation of the government at the
opening of the session, December 7, 1863, was de-
cidedly improved. The amended national bank act
was in operation ; taxation was beginning to be pro-
ductive ; the successes at Gettysburg and Vicksburg
^ Cong. Globe, 38 Cong., i Sess., 2991.
2 Ibid., 3357. ^ Blaine, Twenty Years, I., 507.
128 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
caused gold to drop, and the five-twenty bonds were
rapidly taken. The customs duties were producing
all that had been hoped for: though the returns
from the internal revenue caused some disappoint-
ment. But there was no thought in Congress,
or in the mind of the secretary of the treasury,
other than to press forward on the lines already
laid down. Seven hundred and fifty -five million
dollars was the estimate of what would be re-
quired before the end of the fiscal year, June 30,
1864; Chase expected to provide $594,000,000 from
further loans: additions to the internal revenue
taxes were expected to yield $150,000,000; $161,-
500,000 was anticipated from customs duties and
other ordinary sources.^ To Chase's demand for
authority to act. Congress responded liberally, as
John Sherman says, "placing in the power of the
Government almost unlimited sources of revenue,
and all necessary expedients for borrowing." ^ On
March 3, 1864, a new loan act was passed providing
for an issue of $200,000,000 in bonds :^ the minimum
period of redemption was placed at ten years and
the maximum at forty, which gave them the name
of "ten-forties." Through an error of Chase, who
set the interest at five instead of six per cent., this
issue of bonds proved less successful than the five-
twenties : the total amount sold up to June 30 was
^ Dewey, Financial Hist, of U. S., 312 et seq.
2 John Sherman, Recollections, 279.
8 U. S. Statutes at Large, XIII., 13.
i864] ATTEMPTS AT RECONSTRUCTION 129
only $73,337,000. Chase tided over the strait by
issuing, as he had before, short-term six-per-cent.
notes, the interest to be compounded, which in-
vestors took easily, an expedient which caused con-
tinued anxiety and embarrassment, for these loans
rapidly matured and had to be renewed/
Not only did the laws relating to loans engage
the serious attention of Congress, but also those
relating to currency, customs duties, and internal
taxes. For such legislation the foundation was laid
by the preceding Congress, but numerous supple-
menting and correcting acts were passed. The in-
ternal revenue bill now enacted, June 30, was far
more comprehensive and searching than its prede-
cessor: Indeed, every instrument or article to
which a stamp could be attached was counted in;
all incomes above six hundred dollars must pay ten
per cent. ; while licenses were exacted for every call-
ing, with a minute care that nothing could escape.
A special income tax of five per cent., in addition to
the previous tax, was levied to provide bounties for
enlisting soldiers, but the measure passed only after
long debate and hesitation, for discontent was feared
among the people. The tax, however, met with lit-
tle objection; and in general the internal revenue
was cheerfully paid, pouring a handsome contribu-
tion into the national coffers. It was a time of
* Dewey, Financial Hist, of U. S., 313.
2 U. S. Statutes at Large, XIII., 223-306; John Sherman,
Recollections, 278.
VOL. XXI. — 9
130 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
prosperity; the market was good for everything
that could be grown or manufactured ; labor was in
demand.
The customs duties were carefully revised and
much increased by a statute of Jime 3, 1864, the
consideration of protection to home industries being
ignored in the immediate need of a heavy revenue.
Many articles heretofore free became dutiable, and
a large increase of income at once resulted.^
June 3, 1864, Congress carefully went over and
re-enacted in a new form the national bank legis-
lation of 1863,^ still with a comptroller of the
currency in charge of this branch of the treasury.
Whereas in 1863 sixty-six state banks underwent
conversion into national banks, in 1864 the number
was five htmdred and eight. In subsequent years
the number rapidly increased with the stimulus of
an act of March 3, 1865, by which state bank issues
were legislated out of existence by a ten-per-cent.
annual tax. It was no hardship for any honest in-
stitution to comply with the conditions, and make
secure the payment of its circulating notes by a
deposit with the government. Probably in our
whole financial history no more beneficent change
has ever taken place. If, as has been suggested, it
could not have been brought about except under
the pressure of war,^ the establishment of the na-
tional banking system is a make-weight worth men-
' U. S. Statutes at Large, XIII., 202. Ibid., 99.
^ Dewey, Financial Hist, of U. S., 323.
i864] ATTEMPTS AT RECONSTRUCTION 131
tioning even against the loss and distress of the evil
time.
It is well to note that the financial managers in
this session were turning to less objectionable meth-
ods than the issue of irredeemable paper money.
By the acts of February 25 and July 11, 1862, and
January 17, 1863, $450,000,000 greenbacks had been
authorized, of which $431,000,000 were outstanding.
As all forms of gold and silver had disappeared,
small notes, ''fractional currency," in denomina-
tions running as low as three cents, were authorized,
March 3, 1863, the amount rising at last to $50,-
000,000.^ The greenback pervaded life, but no
more were issued after the summer of 1864.^ It
was becoming apparent that sotmder expedients
were possible, and Congress was adopting them.
The quotation of gold rose during the summer to
286, indicating a depreciation of paper money to
about thirty- five per cent, of its face value. The
best heads were at fault as to what ought to be done.
A piece of financial legislation which completely
failed of its end was the gold bill of Jtme 17, 1864,^
intended to correct the abuses in the buying and sell-
ing of gold. The law proved to be worse than useless,
gold rising in price as never before. The best finan-
ciers became urgent for its repeal, and fortunately
there was time for reconsideration before the ses-
sion closed. The fluctuations in gold, at the time
^ Dewey, Financial Hist, of U. 5., 310. ^ Ibid., 288.
^ U. S. Statutes at Large, XIII., 132.
132 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
so much misunderstood, are regarded now as the
symptoms of the pubUc depression and anxiety:
when success came, people were no longer alarmed
lest the greenbacks should become imperilled.^
John Sherman declares the devising of the great
financial schemes, sometimes mistaken but often
successful, to have been the work of the ways and
means committee in the House and the finance
committee in the Senate. They occupied the prin-
cipal attention of both Houses, and may fairly be
claimed as successful measures of the highest im-
portance. I was deeply interested in all of them,
took an active part in their preparation in com-
mittee and their conduct in the Senate, and feel
that the measures adopted contributed largely to
the triumph of the Union cause." ^ The veteran
statesman, writing thirty years later, does not claim
too much. The financiering of the Civil War period
may properly excite our admiration and gratitude.
Mistakes were inevitable; but the tremendous tem-
porary exigency was met, and in some ways the
financial condition of the country was vastly and
permanently bettered.
Of the acts not relating to slavery or finance,
passed at this session, the more important^ were
those looking towards greater military efficiency,
including a new enrolment act, and one creating the
* Dewey, Financial Hist, of U. S., 297.
^ John Sherman, Recollections, 281.
3 U. S. Statutes at Large, XIII., 6, 11, 30, 32, 47, 385.
1 864] ATTEMPTS AT RECONSTRUCTION 133
office of lieutenant-general, already referred to; en-
abling acts for statehood for Nevada (March 21,1 864)
and Nebraska (April 14, 1864); an act to encourage
immigration (April 19, 1864), which John Sherman
thinks was justifiable only under the extraordinary
circimistances prevailing :^ and acts relating to Pacific
railroads. More liberal grants were bestowed upon
the roads authorized the previous year; and a new
enterprise, the Northern Pacific Railroad, to connect
Lake Superior with Puget Sound, was sanctioned,
and most liberally endowed from the public lands. ^
The most exciting discussion in Congress in the
session of 1 863-1 864 was upon the status of the
rebellious states, and resulted in a disagreement
between the executive and legislative branches of
the government that threatened at first to wreck
the administration. The origin of this controversy
must be traced back to the beginning of the war.
As a provisional arrangement, to remain in force
only until the formalities of reorganization could be
com.pleted, the administration appointed ''military
governors," "with authority to establish all neces-
sary officers and tribunals, and suspend the writ of
habeas corpus, during the pleasure of the president,
or until the loyal inhabitants of the state shall
organize a civil government in conformity with the
constitution of the United States." ^
* John Sherman, Recollections, 280.
^ U. S. Statutes at Large, XIII., 356, 365.
^ Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, VI., 345.
134 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1861
No military governor was necessary in Virginia,
for a minority, after the secession of the state in
1 86 1, organized a loyal state government, with
Francis H. Peirpoint at the head; and the senators
and representatives chosen under this government
were duly recognized by Congress. Soon after,
steps were taken for the setting off of the western
counties, and in 1862 was organized the new state
of West Virginia, with Wheeling for a capital ; June
19, 1863, it was formally admitted to the Union,
on the fiction that the Peirpont government was
competent to give the necessary assent of "Virginia."
Peirpont's shadowy commonwealth, often called the
"vest-pocket government," with Alexandria for a
capital, was also represented for a time in Congress.^
By the end of 1863 five of the seceding states,
Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, and
Louisiana, were in whole or in part nominally sub-
jugated: and some steps needed to be taken with
reference to their relations to the Union. March 5,
1862, Andrew Johnson was confirmed as military
governor of Tennessee, Albert Sidney Johnston
having just retired as far south as Murfreesboro
after the Confederate defeats at Forts Henry and
Donelson. Here, although there were two repre-
sentatives in Congress, the provisional arrangement
was not replaced by any state government until a
period later than that to which we have arrived.^
^ Am. Annual Cyclop., 1863, art. Virginia.
McCarthy, Lincoln's Plan of Reconstrttction, 1 et seq.
i863] ATTEMPTS AT RECONSTRUCTION 135
May 2, 1862, Edward Stanley was made military
governor of North Carolina; but for a long time
there was no great development of Union senti-
ment. In Louisiana, August, 1862, General George
F. Shepley, who had been made by Butler mayor of
New Orleans, was appointed military governor ; and
by his authority, December 3, 1862, a state election
was held at which 7760 votes were cast, resulting in
the choice of two Federal representatives, who were
duly admitted to seats at Washington. No attempt
to reorganize the state government was made in
1863/ In Arkansas, though Federal success in the
field and wide-spread Union sentiment induced Lin-
coln as early as March, 1 862 , to appoint a military gov-
ernor, reconstruction remained in abeyance^ until 1 864,
when a free-state organization came into existence.
December 8, 1863, Lincoln took the portentous
step of sending to Congress a special message con-
taining a copy of a proclamation already issued,
irrevocably committing the executive to a general
plan of reconstruction. He announced as the con-
ditions necessary for the recognition of a state, three
preliminaries: (i) The completion of an organiza-
tion by persons who (2) have subscribed to the Con-
stitution of the United States, and (3) who have
pledged themselves to support the acts and procla-
mations promulgated during the war with reference
to slavery." ^
^ McCarthy, Lincoln's Plan of Reconstrtiction, 36 et seq.
2 Ibid., 77 et seq. ^ Dunning, Essays on the Civil War, 77.
136 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1863
The president further dealt with the status of
individuals by prescribing an oath to be used in
states lately in rebellion, pledging the person taking
it to support the Constitution of the United States
and all acts and proclamations put forth during the
rebellion relating to slavery, except such as had
been formally repealed: this oath might be taken
by all men except high military and civil officers of
the Confederacy, and others who had resigned civil
or military positions in the United States to take
part in the rebellion, or who had unlawfully treated
colored men in the United States service who had
been taken prisoners. To all persons taking this
oath, full amnesty for past offences was granted.
Moreover, whenever, in any rebellious state, a ntmi-
ber not less than one-tenth of the voters at the
presidential election of i860 should desire, having
taken the oath, to reconstitute their state, they
should have power to do so, and thereupon return
to the old relations with the Union. The proclama-
tion further declared that any temporary provision
made for the freedmen of a state, recognizing their
freedom and looking towards their education, would
not be objected to by the national executive: it
suggested that as regards name, constitution, laws,
boundaries, etc., there should be as little departure
as possible from what had been established before:
it recognized that the admission to seats in the Fed-
eral Congress, of persons elected as senators and
representatives, rested entirely with Congress, being
i863] ATTEMPTS AT RECONSTRUCTION 137
outside of executive control. The proclamation
concludes by stating that while thus laying down
for rebellious states a method for returning to their
allegiance, it must not be understood that no other
possible mode would be acceptable/
In the message, the president in his usual clear
and straightforward way reviewed the situation,
citing the acceptance which the Emancipation Proc-
lamation had met at last, the justification and
growing approval of the employment of negro sol-
diers, the lessening of pro-slavery sentiment in the
border states, the favorable change in the feeling
of Europe. He maintained that his action was
authorized by the Constitution or by statutes.
"The proposed acquiescence of the national execu-
tive in any reasonable state temporary arrangement
for the freed people" is made with the hope ''that
the already deeply afflicted people of those states
may be somewhat more ready to give up the cause
of their affliction, if to this extent this vital matter
be left to themselves ' ' ; while at the same time the
president retained power to correct abuses. He
dwelt on the possibility of other acceptable plans
for reconstruction, and urged Congress to help for-
ward the great consummation,^
John Hay, who was on the floor of Congress when
the message was received, recorded in his diary that
the approval seemed unanimous. In the Senate,
not only Chandler, Sumner, and Wilson spoke of it
* Lincoln, Works (ed. of 1894), II., 444. 2 454.
138 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1863
with delight, but Dixon, of Connecticut, a strong
conservative, and Reverdy Johnson, the Democrat,
of Maryland, also approved. In the House the
sentiment was similar, George S. Boutwell, James A.
Garfield, Henry T. Blow, of Missouri, all men of
radical views, were full of enthusiasm. One mem-
ber went shouting through the lobbies : * ' The Presi-
dent is the only man. There is none like him in the
world ! ' ' Reverend Owen Love j oy exclaimed : ' ' How
beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him
that bringeth good tidings'." while Horace Greeley,
who was on the floor of the House, less devout but
not less hearty, declared the message ' ' devilish good. ' '
In congratulating Lincoln, conservatives vied with
radicals. The president was greatly cheered, and
with good reason : to devise a settlement of this most
difficult matter in a way almost universally accepta-
ble among loyal men was an achievement indeed.^
The judiciary eventually sustained fully the view
of the executive regarding reconstruction, the su-
preme court unanimously showing in its opinions
that, like the president, it never doubted the con-
stitutional existence of the states. "Circumstances
had disarranged their relations with the Federal
Government, but with the correction of the dis-
turbance the former conditions could be resumed. ' ' ^
* Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, IX., 109.
2 Dunning, Essays on the Civil War, 72; see opinion of su-
preme court in the Prize Cases, December term, 1862, 2 Black,
668; also case of the Venice, 2 Wallace, 278.
i864] ATTEMPTS AT RECONSTRUCTION 139
As to the legislative branch of the government,
however, a want of harmony began to appear which
brought momentous consequences. While at one
with the executive and the judiciary, in according
to the states a being incapable of destruction by
any unconstitutional organization of the inhabitants,
Congress shrank from the steps towards restoration
announced in the president's message of December
8, 1863. It was feared that Lincoln would be lax in
exacting satisfactory guarantees of continued loyalty.
The change in the temper of Congress soon mani-
fested itself. Henry Winter Davis, of Maryland,
moved at once in the House that the part of the
message relating to reconstruction be referred to a
special committee "on the rebellious states," of
which he was made chairman; and on February 15,
1864, he reported a plan of reconstruction quite
different from Lincoln's.^ Davis, able and of high
personal character, a cousin of David Davis, of
Illinois, Lincoln's intimate friend, had won the ad-
miration of the president, who greatly desired his
friendship and support ; but Davis had taken a dis-
like to Lincoln, perhaps because the latter favored
the Blairs,^ which developed into hostility extreme
and vindictive. In spite of the bitterness, Lincoln's
all-abounding magnanimity wrapped Davis within
his regard; the president could not win him, but he
steadfastly endured, striking no return blow.
* Cong. Globe, 38 Cong., i Sess., 668 (February 15, 1864).
^ Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, IX., 113.
I40 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
In opposition to Lincoln's idea, declared in his
inaugural and repeatedly reaffirmed, that no state
had power to secede from the Union, Davis main-
tained that the seceding states were out of the
Union — a proposition so vehemently announced in
the preamble that the House rejected it, but the
same idea pervaded the resolutions which followed.*
The work already begim in states wholly or partly
conquered^ was to be set aside as invalid, and noth-
ing more of the kind attempted. The incom-
petency of the executive to act in the case being
thus assimied, the bill laid down as a " Congressional
plan " a scheme much more severe and difficult than
the one rejected; in any state w^hich might have
succumbed to the Federal arms, imder a provisional
governor a census of white men was to be taken, a
majority of whom must take the oath of allegiance,
after which delegates might be elected to a conven-
tion to establish a state government. In the new
state constitution three provisions must appear:
(i) disfranchising practically all high civil or mili-
tary officers of the Confederacy; (2) abolishing
slavery; (3) repudiating all debts and obligations
created by or under the sanction of the usurping
power. Such a constitution having been adopted
and ratified, the provisional governor was to cer-
tify the same to the president, who after having
been authorized by Congress to do so, should recog-
^ Cong. Globe, 38 Cong., i Sess., 2107 (February 22, 1864).
2 See chap. viii.. above.
1 864] ATTEMPTS AT RECONSTRUCTION 141
nize the state; after which recognition congressmen
and presidential electors might be chosen/
Davis supported his bill in a speech of imusual
power, ^ in which, while denoimcing the amnesty
oath suggested by the president as utterly inade-
quate, and rejecting contemptuously any plan for
a scheme based upon the votes of only one-tenth of
the former voting population, he strongly urged the
passage of his bill. He argued that the proclama-
tion recognized slavery ; that reconstruction belonged
to Congress alone, and should go to the root of things.
Rarely in the history of the United States has
eloquence produced so marked a result. Whereas
among the Republicans opinion had at first been
almost unanimous in favor of the president's plan,
the ablest and most cautious being among the
heartiest in their approval, when the matter after
much debate came to a vote, March 22, the Davis
bill passed by 73 to 59.
It was brought up in the Senate by B. F. Wade,
who sustained the measure in a strain similar to
that of Davis. It is evident that the Republican
leaders had made up their minds to set Congress
athwart the president's plans. Hence the vote was
favorable in the Senate, and the bill, usually called
the " Davis-Wade bill," went to the president for his
signature on the closing day of the session.
The diary of John Hay, who was at the presi-
* McPherson, Polit. Hist, of Great Rebellion, 317.
^ Cong. Globe, 38 Cong., i Sess., App. (March 22, 1864).
142 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
dent's elbow, is here again most interesting. Lin-
coln sat in the president's room at the Capitol, July
4, at noon of which day Congress was to adjourn.
Members intensely excited stood at hand as the
bills were one after another disposed of. When the
reconstruction measure came at last, Lincoln laid
it aside, whereupon in the general tension of the
group, Zachariah Chandler sharply interrogated Lin-
coln as to his intentions. " As to prohibiting slavery
in the reconstructed states," said Lincoln, ''that is
the point on which I doubt the power of Congress
to act." It is no more than you have done your-
self," said Chandler. ''I conceive," said Lincoln,
that I may in an emergency do things on military
grounds which cannot be done constitutionally by
Congress." Mr. Chandler, not concealing his anger,
went out ; while Lincoln, turning to the cabinet who
sat at hand, said: I do not see how any of us now
can deny and contradict what we have always said,
that Congress has no constitutional power over
slavery in the states." One senator present, Fes-
senden, of Maine, expressed his entire agreement
with this view. The president continued: ''the
position of these gentlemen, that the insurrectionary
states are no longer in the Union, seems to me to
make the fatal admission that states whenever they
please may of their own motion dissolve their con-
nection with the Union. Now we cannot survive
that admission, I am convinced." ^
^ Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, IX., 120.
1 864] ATTEMPTS AT RECONSTRUCTION 143
Congress adjotirned in great excitement, and Lin-
coln followed up his action in "pocketing" the bill,
without signature or veto, by issuing, July 8, a
proclamation to the people, in which after reciting
the circumstances, he declared his unpreparedness
to commit himself to any one plan of reconstruction,
and also his unpreparedness to set aside as naught
the action of Louisiana, Arkansas, or any lately in-
surrectionary state whose people began to show a
desire to return to the Union. He expressed his
strong hope that the thirteenth amendment, for the
time held up, would within a few months be adopted ;
and his earnest desire to aid any state desiring to
return to the Union, and his approval of the con-
gressional scheme as "one very proper plan for the
loyal people of any state choosing to adopt it."^
To this Wade and Davis replied, August 5, by a
manifesto in the New York Tribune, "To the Sup-
porters of the Government," the severest attack
ever made upon Lincoln within his own party.
Every line of the proclamation was traversed and
sharply criticised, especial emphasis being laid upon
the usurpations of the executive. "This rash and
fatal act of the president — a blow at the friends of
his administration, at the rights of humanity and
at the principles of republican government. ... But
he must imderstand that our support is of a cause
and not of a man ; that the authority of Congress is
paramount and must be respected; ... he must
^ Lincoln, Works (ed. of 1894), II., 545.
144 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
confine himself to his executive duties,- — to obey and
t;o execute, not make the laws, and leave political
reorganization to Congress."^ Yet it clearly ap-
peared ere long that Lincoln, before the people, had
received no harm from this attempt to wound him
in the house of his friends.
^ McPherson, Polit. Hist, of Great Rebellion, 332.
CHAPTER IX
LINCOLN'S SECOND ELECTION
(1864)
THROUGHOUT the first three years of the war
the determined champions of the Union saw
that it was as imperative to keep control of the
political as of the military organization. Hence,
politicians watched with eagerness the state elec-
tions from year to year, and the congressional
elections of 1862; the intense conviction of the
necessity of maintaining a fighting majority in
Congress caused the people to shut their eyes to
the drastic methods by which the border states
were led to return a solid Republican delegation
to the House in the election of 1862, thus barely
saving the war government from paralysis. The
attitude of the War Democrats was of great signifi-
cance in this crisis, and to placate them and make
common political action easier, the name Union
party was in many states taken up instead of
Republican, and even came to be the official title
of the national organization in the presidential cam-
paign of 1864. Nevertheless, those wise in forecast-
ing felt that Republican success depended upon con-
VOL. XXI.— 10
146 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
tinned victories by Union armies ; and in the Union
party itself were elements not satisfied with Lincoln.
Lincoln's most formidable rival was Chase, a
man w^hose ability, worth, and weakness have had
in our narrative full illustration. He was discon-
tented with the president and with his colleagues in
the cabinet; he desired intensely for himself the
highest place, of his adequacy for which he was
serenely sure; he so misunderstood the situation
as to imagine that he had a great popular follow-
ing. He wrote, January 24, 1864: "Had there been
here an Administration in the true sense of the
word — a president conferring with his cabinet and
taking their united judgments and with their aid
enforcing activity, economy, energy, in all depart-
ments of the public service, we could have spoken
boldly and defied the world. But our condition
here has always been very different. I preside
over the funnel ; everybody else, and especially the
Secretaries of War and the Navy, over the spigots
— and keep them well open, too. Mr. Seward con-
ducts the Foreign Relations with very little let or
help from anybody. There is no unity and no
system except so far as it is departmental. There
is progress, but it is slow and involuntary — just what
is coerced by the irresistible pressure of the vast
force of the people. How under such circumstances
can anybody announce a policy which can only be
made respectable by union, wisdom, and courage!"*
* Warden, Chase, 562.
ELECTION OF 1864
147
How Lincoln felt towards Chase is shown by a
deliverance recorded in John Hay's diary, October
16, 1863: ''Mr. Chase makes a good Secretary and
I shall keep him where he is. If he becomes presi-
dent, all right. I hope we may never have a worse
man. I have observed with regret his plan of
strengthening himself. Whenever he sees that an
important matter is troubling me, if I am compelled
to decide in a way to give offence to a man of some
importance, he always ranges himself in opposition
to me, and persuades the victim that he has been
hardly dealt with, and that he would have arranged
it very differently. ... I am entirely indifferent
as to his success or failure in these schemes so long
as he does his duty at the head of the Treasury
Department." ^
The two great men, associated very closely, both
desired the nomination — an honorable ambition.
Lincoln was justly confident that he had done well,
and was anxious to continue until he had brought
the country out of its strait. Chase misjudged
the crisis, the feeling of the country, his immediate
environment, most of all, perhaps, himself: he had
no strength with the people, nor was there a single
public man of prominence who actively favored his
candidacy. A Chase organization, however, more
or less formal, came into existence, at the head of
which was Samuel C. Pomeroy, of Kansas, a senator
of no large significance, who, unknown to Chase,
^ Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, VIII., 316.
148 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
issued a confidential circular that went broadcast
through the country. This asserted the impossi-
bility of Lincoln's re-election, and criticised what it
termed Lincoln's temporizing and hesitating dispo-
sition, which would be certain to manifest itself
more strongly during a second administration;
asserted the inexpediency of allowing to any presi-
dent a second term in the then existing condition
of the Union; and finally pointed out the combina-
tion in Chase of the qualities requisite for a chief
magistrate.^
February 22, 1864, the circular appeared in the
newspapers, whereupon Chase wrote Lincoln that
he had not known of the existence of such a letter:
he admitted that at the urgent solicitations of his
friends he had become a candidate, and asked that
he might be allowed to resign his post, should his
position, in the judgment of the president, prejudice
the public interest. To this Lincoln responded good-
naturedly, stating at the end that he ' ' perceived no
occasion for a change." ^ The candidacy of Chase
speedily collapsed. Not only was there no response,
but those on whom he particularly counted ranged
themselves with Lincoln. When the Republican
members of the Ohio legislature in full caucus nom-
inated Lincoln, February 25, Chase at once withdrew.
Besides Chase, some of the Republicans thought
of Grant, but he would not listen to the idea of his
* Hart, Chase, 312.
2 Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, VIII., 321 et seq.
ELECTION OF 1864
149
nomination. Quite a different case was that of
Fremont; though discredited both as the adminis-
trator of a department and as a soldier in the field,
he still had a following, and a meeting was held,
May 31, 1864, at Cleveland, Ohio, in his interest.
The gathering was in no sense representative; a
company of two hundred or so, mostly from St.
Louis and New York, without credentials from any
body of the people, came together of their own ac-
cord. No figure of prominence was present, though
Horace Greeley had been, without reason, expected.
A letter was read from Wendell Phillips, who made
a comparison between Fremont and Lincoln to the
disadvantage of the latter, and suggested for the
convention a radical platform, providing for the
confiscation and distribution of the conquered South,
and for universal suffrage. Fremont was finally
nominated for the presidency by this irresponsible
party, with John Cochrane, of New York, for vice-
president. Fremont accepted, declaring at the
time, among other things, his belief that the work of
Lincoln was ''politically, militarily, and financially
a failure." The Democratic press, eager to foment
a division in the Republican ranks, sought to make
much of it, but the Cleveland convention was soon
looked upon as an event of no importance.^
The Republican convention was appointed for
June 7, 1864,^ a date unusually early, but the lead-
ers desired to settle upon the candidate, and pre-
* McPherson, Polit. Hist, of Great Rebellion, 410. ^ Ibid., 403 .
ISO OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
sent at once to the opposition a front as nearly
united as possible. From the beginning of Janu-
ary, throughout the winter and spring, indications
abounded that the only candidate was Lincoln,
loyal men from the states east and west making
manifest their enthusiasm for the great chief. When
the convention assembled at Baltimore, ex -Gov-
ernor E. D. Morgan, of New York, called it to
order, his brief speech being marked especially by
the declaration that the thirteenth amendment, then
pending in Congress, was fundamental to Repub-
licanism, a key-note echoed back in heavy and long-
continued applause.
The temporary chairman. Reverend Robert J.
Breckinridge, D.D., of Kentucky, a patriarchal and
dignified figure, whose kinsmen were among the
most strenuous insurgents, came out of the hot
border battle with the smell of fire, as it were, in
his garments, to bear his testimony. His speech
was as fervid as the utterance of a prophet of old.
Disregarding what was usual, he forestalled the
action of the convention by announcing Lincoln as
the only possible candidate. With passion almost
ferocious, he declared ''the only enduring cement
of free institutions to be the blood of traitors. It
is a fearful truth, but we had as well avow it at once;
and every blow you strike, and every rebel you kill,
you are adding it may be centuries to the life of the
government and to the freedom of your children."
He declared himself to be absolutely aloof from
1 864] ELECTION OF 1864 151
politics. "As a Union party I will follow you to
the gates of death; as Republican or Democrat, I
will not follow you one foot." The address was
especially impressive when Dr. Breckinridge in-
dorsed Morgan's 'approval of the abolition of sla-
very. " I join myself with those who say, away with
it forever!"
For permanent chairman, Governor William Den-
nison,of Ohio, was announced, whose excellent speech
enforcing eloquently Breckinridge's doctrine pro-
duced scarcely the same effect; for he came from
and would return to the security of a northern state,
whereas the boldness of the Kentuckian might con-
sign him to a bloody grave.
When the convention began to work, its task
was easy. Of delegations applying for admission
none were rejected except that claiming to be from
South Carolina; those of Virginia and Florida were
admitted to the floor without the right to vote; all
others had full privileges; as to Missouri, where
among loyal men there had been a fierce dispute of
factions, two delegations appeared, of which the one
representing the more radical men was selected.
The issues involved in the contest were set forth
in the platform,^ presented by Henry J. Raymond,
editor of the New York Times, chairman of the
committee on resolutions. This able appeal to the
country insisted upon the duty to maintain the in-
tegrity of the Union, and the Constitution and laws
* McPherson, PoUt. Hist, of Great Rebellion, 406.
152 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
of the United States; and as Union men pledged
everything in the party's power to aid the govern-
ment in queuing the rebelHon and in bringing to
the punishment due to their crimes, the rebels and
traitors arrayed against it. The platform further
approved the determination of the government not
to compromise with rebels, and to prosecute the war
with the utmost possible vigor.
Slavery was denounced as the cause and the
strength of the rebellion, and the platform explicitly
called for such an amendment to the Constitution,
to be made by the people in conformity with its
provisions, as shall terminate and forever prohibit
its existence within the jurisdiction of the United
States.
The president's policy and administration received
ungrudging support in an eulogium on Abraham Lin-
coln, and the convention approved as essential to the
preservation of the nation, and as within the pro-
visions of the Constitution, ''the measures which he
has adopted to defend the nation against its open
and secret foes . . . especially the Proclamation of
Emancipation." The only thing resembling censure
was * ' a resolution looking towards changes in the cab-
inet so that harmony should prevail in the national
councils, and only those remain who cordially indorsed
the principles proclaimed in these resolutions." In
view of the French invasion of Mexico, the platform
declared that "The people of the United States view
with extreme jealousy, as menacing to the peace
ELECTION OF 1864
153
and independence of their own country, the efforts
of any European power to obtain new foot-holds for
monarchical governments, sustained by foreign mili-
tary force, in near proximity to the United States." ^
The chairman of the Illinois delegation named
for the presidency, in the briefest terms, "Abraham
Lincoln, God bless him." The ensuing vote stood,
for Lincoln, 484; the Missouri delegation, following
strict instructions, cast their votes for Grant, but
they at once fell in with the rest to make the vote
unanimous.
For vice-president the selection w^as more diffi-
cult. No dissatisfaction existed as regards Hanni-
bal Hamlin; but the feeling prevailed that a War
Democrat would give strength to the ticket : Daniel
S. Dickinson, of New York; Lovell H. Rousseau and
Joseph Holt, of Kentucky; Benjamin F. Butler, of
Massachusetts, and Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee,
were names suggested. In the balloting Andrew
Johnson received two hundred votes, after which
all united in declaring his nomination unanimous.
Thus the Tennesseean, crude, headstrong, preju-
diced, but full of courage and devotedly patriot-
ic, came to the front. Lincoln, who had rigidly
abstained from making any suggestions as to the
action or declarations of the convention, heard the
result calmly, but did not conceal his gratification.
He did not understand, he said, that he was held
to be the best and wisest man in America; 1 ut
^ McPherson, Polit. Hist, of Great Rebellion, 406, 407.
154 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
simply that it was a bad plan "to swap horses while
crossing the river." ^
The Baltimore convention took place while the
North was still buoyant with the hope that Grant
and Sherman would soon do great things: but
while it was in session the details of the dreadful
repulse at Cold Harbor were arriving; and before
the month ended Sherman was beaten back at
Kenesaw Mountain. The situation in the two
main armies grew worse during July and August,
Richmond and Atlanta baffling every Federal at-
tempt. Even Lincoln became depressed, while his
stanchest supporters quite lost heart. The presi-
dent, to whom the success of McClellan, the in-
evitable Democratic candidate, began to seem likely,
framed a plan for coming to an understanding with
him to save the Union by a combined effort, to be
made in the interval between the election and the
inauguration.
When the prospect was darkest the forces of the
opposition party assembled at Chicago, August 29,
quite sure of their power to overthrow the admin-
istration.^ The delegates arrived numerous and
exultant, but a want of harmony existed which
from the first boded misfortune. While many War
Democrats were acting with the Republicans, such
as Dickinson, Johnson, Tod, Brough, and a number
of the best generals in the field, there were many
^ Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, IX., 76.
2 McPherson, PoUt. Hist, of Great Rebellion, 417.
ELECTION OF 1864
155
War Democrats at Chicago, led by the delegation
from New York — over against whom stood the
peace men, out and out Copperheads, Vallandigham
at the front, home from his exile, and in exaggerated
vigor. The convention was called to order by
August Belmont, German born, the agent of the
Rothschilds in New York, and noted in finance.
His brief address was intended to promote harmony,
after which ex -Governor Bigler, of Pennsylvania,
as temporary chairman, ascribed the woes under
which the country suffered to the Republicans,
against whom a united stand must be made "to
rescue our country — our whole country — from its
present lamentable condition."
Horatio Seymour, of New York, the permanent
chairman, made the great address of the occasion,
a masterpiece of dignified, eloquent, passionate
invective. ''This Administration cannot now save
the Union, if it would. It has by its proclamations,
by vindictive legislation, by display of hate and
passion, placed obstacles in its own pathway which
it cannot overcome, and has hampered its own free-
dom by unconstitutional acts. If this Administra-
tion cannot save this Union, we can. Mr. Lincoln
values many things above the Union : we put it first
of all. He thinks a proclamation worth more than
peace. We think the blood of our people more precious
than the edicts of a president. We demand no con-
ditions for the preservation of our Union. We are
shackled with no hates, no prejudices, no passions."
156 OUTCOME OP THE CIVIL WAR [1864
Vallandigham, a member of the committee on
resolutions, dominated the committee by his energy.
He draughted and put through in spite of opposition
the only very significant utterance of the platform.
" That the convention does explicitly declare as the
sense of the American people, that after four years
of failure to restore the Union by the experiment of
war, . . . humanity, liberty, and the public welfare
demand that immediate efforts be made for a cessa-
tion of hostilities, and that a convention or some
other unmilitary means be employed, that peace
may be restored on the basis of the Federal union of
the states."^
When submitted to the convention, this practical
surrender to the Confederacy passed unchallenged
with the other resolutions, the gloom of the military
situation disposing the country towards peace as
never before. Nominations being in order, McClel-
lan received 202 1 votes, with a few scattering.
Vallandigham moved that McClellan's nomination
be made unanimous, which was done. With the
nomination^ for vice-president of George H. Pendle-
ton, an able Democratic congressman from Cincin-
nati, the work of the convention was over. Great
enthusiasm prevailed, but, September 2, almost at
once after the adjournment, news came from Sher-
man which, as Seward said, "knocked the planks
out of the Chicago platform"; and McClellan, while
accepting the nomination, did it in terms quite out
* McPherson, Polit. Hist, of Great Rebellion, 419. ^ Ibid,, 421.
ELECTION OF 1864
157
of harmony with Vallandigham's resolution. All
interest centred upon the men in the field, and in
good time, before election day, their work made the
outcome certain.
Before we return to the soldiers, w^e must con-
sider the disappearance from our stage of certain
important figures. Chase has constantly been in
the foreground, a pure, stately, columnar, though
not flawless, personality, bearing upon Atlantean
shoulders a heavy part of the burden of the day.
The secretary and the president were really in
principle not far apart: to both it was a matter
dear as life itself to maintain freedom and the
Union; but w^hile the secretary put freedom first
as the necessary foimdation for the Union, the presi-
dent put the Union first — its preservation a condi-
tion without which freedom could not exist. ^ While
not far apart in principles, in temperament and
disposition the two men jarred; they had a "differ-
ent taste in jokes." Lincoln did the fullest justice
to the ability and worth of Chase, but could not
find him congenial. "Chase is one and a half
times bigger than any man I ever knew," said he;
but Chase failed to appreciate Lincoln, whom he
rated much below himself, and whose homely
mother- wit he held to be boorish and unbecoming.
Though always at his onerous post, and faithful
as a counsellor, he repeatedly asked to be allowed
to resign, usually in order to recall Lincoln's mind
^ Hart, Chase, 292.
158 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
to his indispensableness. Up to 1864, Lincoln, with
eye single to the public welfare, had good-naturedly
refused. With the opening of 1864 came the effort
by Chase and his friends to supplant Lincoln, fol-
lowed by other causes for estrangement. Among
these was a quarrel with the Blairs, whom Chase
thought favored by Lincoln. The Blair family, in
the story of the Civil War, is an interesting group.
Francis P. Blair, Sr., a Virginian born, went while
still a child to Kentucky, becoming a friend of
Henry Clay in early manhood. Estranged from him
in John Quincy Adams's day, he attracted Jackson's
notice by opposing nullification, and was invited by
him to Washington, where he founded the Globe,
a newspaper of great influence. In 1864, a man
seventy-three years old, he was no longer an editor,
but very active, as always, for the Union: he was
the medium of the overtures to Robert E. Lee, in
1 861, to become commander of the Union army;
in the present year he sought to bring about a
better understanding between Lincoln and McClel-
lan: a little later he was a zealous go-between from
Washington to Richmond in the interests of peace.
Two sons of this political veteran have often
appeared in our narrative, as men of power and
patriotism. F. P. Blair, Jr., after saving Missouri
to the Union, in conjunction with Lyon, followed
a most energetic course: now commanding the
Seventeenth Corps in the Army of the West, now a
leader in Congress, he vibrated between field and
ELECTION OF 1864
159
forum, always audacious and dominating. Mont-
gomery Blair did almost as much for Maryland as
his brother Frank did for Missouri. Equally able,
perhaps, he confined himself to politics. In the
cabinet he had not the prominence of Seward, Chase,
or Stanton ; as postmaster - general his work was
less concerned with the war than theirs; but his
voice in council w^as never silent and often heeded.
Father and sons stood sympathetically together:
forceful and aggressive, they became not only
a terror to their adversaries in the South, but
caused enmity among the friends of the Union at
home.
In 1864 the Blairs had fallen out with the rad-
icals, especially with Fremont, who at their in-
stance had received his commission as major-general
and an appointment to a department, but soon
forfeited their friendship, all who adhered to him
becoming their foes. In Maryland, Montgomery
Blair and Henry Winter Davis w^ere soon at odds.
The radicals took sides against the trio more and
more definitely ; the Blairs and all who countenanced
them feeling their wrath.
Lincoln was suffering from this feud, which brought
about the hostility of Henry Winter Davis, so viru-
lent in the reconstruction business.^ The president
was to suffer still further: Chase conceived a vio-
lent enmity to Frank Blair, on account of remarks
made in debate — enmity which the aggressive sol-
^ See p. 139, above.
I
i6o OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
dier-statesman, riding rough-shod, made more bit-
ter. When Lincoln, according to a promise made
some time before, allowed Blair to return to his
rank in the army from a seat in Congress, he did so
with the hope that he might improve the situation;
but Chase at once bracketed Lincoln with Blair,
his estrangement from the president growing still
wider.
Another cause of offence to Chase was what he
unreasonably regarded an interference by the presi-
dent with his appointments. The upshot of it all
was that, June 30, 1864, Chase sent in his fourth or
fifth resignation. There is reason to believe that
he would have yielded as usual to remonstrance
from the president, but this time no remonstrance
came; and William Pitt Fessenden, chairman of
the Senate committee on finance, was at once ap-
pointed as his successor.* The resignation of Chase,
coming after disasters in the field and contentions
in Congress, threw the country into painful excite-
ment, an accurate indication being the rise of gold
to its highest point, about 286. Chase accepted
the situation, after all, in a manly way. To his
successor, who naturally hesitated to assume his
colossal burden, his words were kind and reassuring.
He said truthfully that all the great work of the
department was fairly blocked out and in progress;
that the organization was planned and in many
ways complete, or in a way towards completion.
* Hart, Chase, 318.
i864] ELECTION OF 1864 161
His achievement, indeed, had been a great path-
breaking. He was hampered at every step by the
lack of precedents for such an exigency, and the
behef shared by every one that the war must soon
end. His management of the bond issues was in
the main shrewd and far-sighted, his scheme for
internal revenue at last most effective; while in
laying the foundation of the national bank system,
he bestowed on his country a noble and permanent
good. Chase may justly be called a great secretary
of the treasury, deserving of honor and dignity.
In October of this year Lincoln appointed him
chief - justice of the supreme court of the United
States — a post which the president, with all the
magnanimity of his great nature, was delighted to
bestow.
The resolution of the Baltimore convention re-
lating to a reconstruction of the cabinet was of
radical origin, and looked towards the retirement
not of Chase, but of Montgomery Blair. That re-
sult came in September, the president frankly stat-
ing that while Blair had lost nothing in his regard,
it was expedient that he should give way, which he
did with good grace; nor was the devotion of the
Blairs to the administration abated. Montgomery
toiled manfully in the canvass for his late chief,
while Frank rode at the right hand of Sherman in
the progress through Georgia and the Carolinas —
the septuagenarian father meantime working as ever
for the country. William Dennison, of Ohio, be-
VOL. XXI. — II
i62 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
came postmaster - general. James Speed, of Ken-
tucky, was made attorney-general, succeeding Bates,
who resigned November 24, a faithful servant of the
government, who, ill at ease in the crisis, preferred
to withdraw to private life. Caleb B. Smith, Lin-
coln's first secretary of the interior, resigned earlier,
December, 1862, his place being filled by John P.
Usher, of Indiana.
CHAPTER X
THE CONFEDERACY ON THE SEA
(1861-1864)
THROUGHOUT all its immense extent of coast
and numerous rivers, the Confederacy was com-
pelled in naval warfare, with the single exception of
the one day's victory of the Merrimac, in March,
1862, to accept defeat. All the other important con-
flicts— on the Mississippi and its affluents, and in
the Atlantic region, were gained by Federal fleets
and ships. On the open ocean, too, the Confederacy
never gained an important victory ; yet her few sea-
going cruisers inflicted great material damage, and
seriously injured the repute of the Federal navy by
their depredations on unarmed merchant-men.
On the other hand, the Federal blockading squad-
ron was also capturing merchant-ships, and there-
by giving powerful assistance to the land armies in
the effort to throttle the power of the Confederacy.^
The dozen ships stationed in April, 1861, increased
gradually to a fleet of three hundred, which effect-
ually guarded thousands of miles of coast. Not far
below the Virginia capes begins the peculiar double
» Naval War Records, VI.-XIX.
i64 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
coast which characterizes the southern Atlantic sea-
board — the sounds of North Carolina, behind the
outlying beaches; then after an interval the inlets
among the Sea Islands of South Carolina, and the
sand-barred estuaries of Georgia and Florida. The
North Atlantic squadron patrolled the coast as far
down as Wilmington, whence the South Atlantic
squadron kept watch to Cape Canaveral; the East
Gulf squadron took the stretch from Key West to
Pensacola, and the West Gulf thence to the Rio
Grande. Though the line was so long, the harbors
practicable for ocean commerce were few; and in
1864, Wilmington, Charleston, Mobile, and Galves-
ton, with a few inlets, were the only ports that ships
could enter. ^
The task of the blockaders was tedious and vex-
atious rather than dangerous. The enemy could
harm them little, and good sailors in stanch and
well-equipped craft soon learned not to dread even
the storms of Cape Hatteras; but there were long
months of monotonous watching, broken only by
occasional excitement ; for the sailor must be always
ready on the instant to spring into the fullest activ-
ity. Night was the time to be on the alert; small
open boats patrolling close to the surf and on the
bar were stations more fruitful of results than the
comfortable ships.
As experience developed the faculties and re-
sources of the blockaders, the blockaded kept even
* Soley, Blockade and Cruisers, 26 et seq.
1 864] NAVAL WARFARE 165
pace, practising ever new methods of evasion.*
Privateering, which in 186 1 Jefferson Davis sought
to encourage by the issue of letters of marque, did
not prove profitable, as private ships foimd better
profit in blockade - rtmning. Soon ordinary craft
gave way to vessels built especially for this pur-
pose. Cargoes shipped from Europe were trans-
ferred at the Bermudas or Nassau to long, narrow
vessels, in which everything was sacrificed to speed;
gray in color, these veritable ocean greyhounds
could not at the distance of a few htmdred yards be
distinguished in the shadows against the sea, the
horizon mist, or the sandy shore. Creeping stealth-
ily landward, they dashed by night at full speed
through the blockading line, the breakers on the
bar making the engines inaudible, the swiftness of
the almost invisible apparitions baffling the keenest
vision. The sharpest competition prevailed betw^een
pursuer and pursued, but the clutch of the pursuer
becamie ever more inevitable. Early in 1864, about
two out of three blockade-rimners escaped ; but be-
fore the year ended, forty out of sixty-six that fre-
quented one port were captured. The total number
of blockade-runners of every size captured or de-
stroyed during the war was fifteen himdred and
four.^
Great as the risks were, adventurers were always
foimd to run them, for the gains w^ere enormous.
* Scharf, Confed. States Navy, 428 et seq.
' Soley, Blockade and Cruisers, 44.
i66 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
The ingoing cargoes brought huge profits; and the
cotton, laden with which the blockade-runners came
out, was better than a gold-mine. It was no un-
common thing to clear one hundred and fifty thou-
sand dollars each way. With such gains possible,
blockade - running was profitable even though the"
vessel made only a trip or two before capture. To
captains and crews such boimties were paid that
they could soon retire with fortimes. The spirit of
adventure was reinforced by the love of gain, and
owners were never at a loss to man their ships. The
Robert E. Lee, from Nassau, ran the blockade twenty-
one times within six months, bringing out six thou-
sand bales of cotton and carrying in a miscellaneous
assortment of merchandise to a voracious market.*
Though the South had at the start few ships to
defend her coast, and almost no ship-yards, machine-
shops, or skilled labor, the Confederacy showed, as
has been explained, most noteworthy ingenuity in
supplying this lack.^ In coping with the results of
this skill, the monotonous life of the Federal block-
aders was sometimes relieved. Such was the conflict
with the Virginia, and certain other achievements
of the monitors. At last, in the summer of 1864,
came one of the few general fleet engagements on
a great scale. ^
At this time the only port of the Gulf available
*Soley, Blockade and Cruisers, 156, 166.
2 See above, p. 62 et seq.
^Battles and Leaders, IV., 379 et seq.
NAVAL WARFARE
167
to blockade-runners was Mobile. New Orleans had
fallen long before ; the ports of Texas since the sun-
dering of the Confederacy by the Federal occupa-
tion of the Mississippi were of little service; at
Pensacola the Federal garrison at Fort Pickens
prevented entrance. Farragut had long desired to
attack Mobile, which Grant, Sherman, and Banks
had threatened from the land side. But not until
the midsummer of 1864 did Farragut range his
fleet, the West Gulf blockading squadron strongly
reinforced, before the sandy capes between which
opened the strait that he must force.
Mobile itself lies thirty miles from the Gulf, be-
tween which and the city extends the bay, a sheet
of water in some parts fifteen miles in breadth, in
many places too shallow for ocean-going ships, but
in its lower part affording the necessary depth and
space. ^ To defend this bay, on Mobile Point, the
cape to the east, stood Fort Morgan, an old-fash-
ioned fort of brick, supplemented skilfully by earth-
works and sand -bag facings, and heavily armed.
To the west, guarding shallow inlets, lay smaller
works, Fort Gaines and Fort Powell, too distant to
be effective. The main reliance for defence was
Fort Morgan, aided by four vessels, of which by
far the most formidable was the Tennessee, the most
powerful of the several rams constructed by the
Confederates during the war, craft always inspir-
ing terror and often inflicting disaster. Upon a low-
* Mahan, Gulf and Inland Waters, 218 et seq.
i68 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
lying hull was mounted an iron-plated casemate
two himdred feet long, its sides sloping at an angle
of forty-five degrees, built of solid oak and pine two
feet thick, and covered with six inches of iron.
Noticeable was the projecting rim or "knuckle" of
iron which surrounded the hull, projecting well be-
yond, and which at the bow was prolonged into the
beak which was her principal means of offence. She
carried six large Brooke rifled guns, and was com-
manded by Franklin Buchanan, who commanded
the Virginia at Hampton Roads. Fatal defects in
what otherwise was a most menacing instrument
of war, were a weak engine, and steering-gear ex-
posed without protection to shot and shell. More
dreaded perhaps than even fort or iron-clad were
the torpedoes, then instrtmients unfamiliar and al-
most untested. It was known that these were
thickly scattered about the harbor, and that a line
of them crossed the channel where the ships must
pass.
To encounter these obstacles, Farragut had a fleet
of eighteen ships; four of these were monitors, and
seven wooden ships of over a thousand tons, one, the
Brooklyn, over two thousand. The Hartford, as at
New Orleans, was the flag-ship, and several of her
consorts with their crews had also taken part in that
action. In the early morning of August 5, 1864,
the fleet was ranged for battle, the monitors, led by
the Tecumseh, forming a line by themselves nearer
the fort than the wooden ships. As at Port Hud-
i864] NAVAL WARFARE i6g
son, lashed to the port side of each large ship was a
smaller vessel, to carry her out of action should she
be disabled. Some vessels had been strengthened
at the bow, to serve as rams; the Brooklyn carried
a device for grappling torpedoes; all were stripped
of superfluous spars and tackle. Very unwillingly
Farragut, yielding to the pressure of his captains,
allowed the Brooklyn to lead the line of wooden
ships, which was formed just west of the monitors.
The flood-tide set strongly, a mild west wind was
dissipating the haze as the squadron started.^
Immediately upon reaching the perilous point in
the channel, where the guns of Fort Morgan, now
in full activity, told with most effect, the startling
drama began. . The Tecumseh, whose guns opened
the battle for the fleet, suddenly sank out of sight
before the eyes of friend and foe, her screw still
whirling in the air as she pltmged head-foremost.
Her captain, T. M. Craven, in the pilot-house, gave
the one chance for life that offered, to the pilot, per-
ishing himself heroically. It was the work of a
torpedo, so deadly that but tw^enty-one out of her
crew of a hundred or so escaped. At once the
Brooklyn halted, signalling that a line of buoys was
immediately in front, a sign of danger. The ships
behind, urged by their engines and also the pow-
erful current, w^ere fast drifting together in a dis-
ordered huddle, while the hostile cannon over-
whelmed them with its deadly fire, and the passage
^ L. Farragut, David G. Farragid, 407.
I70 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
was blocked ahead. The audacity and quick de-
cision of the admiral saved the day. He ordered
the Hartford ahead ; to get a view above the battle-
smoke, he climbed high into the rigging, where he
was lashed to the shrouds by a watchful sailor lest
wounded he should fall to the deck. Rushing at
full speed past the halting Brooklyn, the Hartford's
company soon heard beneath the hull the knocking
of torpedoes and even the discharge of the primers;
but by good fortune not one exploded.
Presently the Hartford passed into the bay, and
now had new adversaries to confront in the hostile
fleet, which, though few in number, showed no lack
of spirit. While smaller gun-boats raked her from
the front, the Tennessee approached, slow but ter-
rible. Buchanan, seeing that his unwieldy vessel
could cope but poorly with the more active Hart-
ford, changed his course, running amuck down the
line of Federal ships, which were pushing fast after
the admiral through the channel into the bay. The
crew of the Tennessee were intrepid, not shrinking
from the broadsides which rained at close quarters
upon her armor. Her guns were not idle, but
through some defect in the ammunition they often
missed fire; her beak, too, through the weakness of
her engine, could not well be brought to bear in the
swift flood-tide. Nevertheless, the spectacle and
uproar were frightful; the fleet in general suffered,
and the Oneida, completely crippled, was towed
along by her consort.
1 864] NAVAL WARFARE 171
When at length the ships had gathered near the
Hartford within the bay, the fort batteries now whol-
ly passed, the Tennessee approached again, throw-
ing herself into the fray alone. A wilder melee than
now ensued has rarely been seen upon the waters.
Following the admiral's signal, every ship sought to
run down the Tennessee, which, selecting the flag-
ship, thrust her beak steadily forward. The Hart-
ford, nothing loath, rushed head on towards her ad-
versary, swerving just before the impact so that
the ram failed to strike fairly. The "bluff of the
bows" on each side came together, the ships grat-
ing past each other, the broadsides thundering into
the opposing muzzles. The other ships were quite
too near at hand. First the Monongahela struck
her blow, her prow crumbling against the ''knuckle"
of the Tennessee, which received no harm. A blow
from the Lackawanna was equally fruitless, and as
that vessel swept round to repeat her dash, in
the confusion where each ship was eager for a
chance, missing her foe she crashed into the star-
board side of the Hartford, cutting through to
within two feet of the water-line. The end was now
near. As the Qssipee drove forward in her turn, the
monitors at the same moment closing up, a white
flag tied to a boat-hook was thrust up from the
Tennessee. Her exposed steering-gear had been
shot away, her smoke-stack was demolished, she
lay unmanageable. While inflicting little harm,
she had received really little; but two of her crew
172 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
were killed and ten wounded within the almost in-
vulnerable casemate; and all the broadsides hurled
upon her were far from having made her a wreck.
The sum of the damage to the Federals was
heavy, though the victory was great. Besides the
drowned crew of the Tecumseh, fifty-two were killed
and one hundred and seventy wounded, by far the
longest list of casualties being on the Hartford,
which also had the narrowest escape from sinking.
Several other Federal vessels were destroyed by
torpedoes before Mobile Bay was fully possessed.
Fort Gaines and Fort Powell soon surrendered ; after
which a land force of five thousand men co-operat-
ing with the fleet, the resistance of Fort Morgan was
beaten down, and it was captured on August 23.
The port was thus closed to blockade-nmners, though
the city held out till the following spring.
One ram still remained to the Confederacy, the
Albemarle, which in North Carolina waters threat-
ened the blockade as the Virginia, Arkansas, and
Tennessee had done elsewhere. On the Roanoke
River, in April, 1864, she destroyed a man-of-war,
and played an important part in the recapture of
Plymouth by the Confederates, and now lay moored
at Plymouth preparing for another onslaught. No
bolder or more brilliant achievement was performed
by the navy during the war than the sinking of this
dangerous ship, October 28, 1864, by Lieutenant
W. B. Cushing. Stealthily making his way up the
river by night with a small crew of picked men, his
NAVAL WARFARE
173
latinch lay beside his victim before it was discov-
ered. Forcing his craft at full speed over the boom
of logs which surrounded the ship, at the moment
when a heav}'- gun, discharged within a few feet, al-
most shattered the assailant by concussion, he cool-
ly applied to the ram's side a torpedo, then pulling
the cord, was submerged with his men in the de-
struction that followed the explosion. The shattered
vessel was sent to the bottom; of Cushing's crew,
some were drowned, some made prisoners in the
water, while two or three, among them the lieuten-
ant himself, were saved by swimming. The destruc-
tion of the Albemarle was perhaps the last note-
worthy achievement of the blockaders, crowning
well their long service of watching and exposure.^
The Confederate navy accomplished little on the
western rivers; such craft as could be brought to
bear were no match for the northern gun-boats,
which after the fall of Vicksburg nearly had the
field to themselves. Against the blockade, too,
while the Confederacy maintained the struggle lon-
ger, it had, as we have seen, only small success.
On the open ocean, however, the southern commerce-
destroyers performed remarkable feats, bringing to
the Union great disaster.^
The Geneva arbitration tribunal in 1872 awarded
to the United States fifteen and a half millions of
* Naval War Records, X., 620; Battles and Leaders, IV., 635 et
seq.; Soley, Blockade and Cruisers, 104-.
^ Naval War Records, I.-III.
174 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
dollars for ships destroyed by Confederate cruisers
constructed in British ports, at the same time dis-
allowing all claims for indirect or consequential
losses.^ Scharf gives a list of two hundred and
fifty-eight prizes captured by nineteen cruisers.^
While the money awarded at Geneva was an
offset to this loss, for the large indirect loss there
was no compensation. The case of the United
States at Geneva states that in i860 two-thirds of
the foreign commerce of New York was carried on in
American bottoms ; that the transfers to the British
flag, to avoid capture of ships, were, in 1861, 126;
in 1862, 135; in 1863, 348; in 1864, 106. In 1865
the number of foreign ships frequenting the harbor
of New York was three and one-half times greater
than in 1858.^ The merchant-marine of the United
States was near extinction. The vessels, large and
small, by which this remarkable result was accom-
plished— 258 captures and 715 transfers, most of
them because of fear of capture — appear to have
numbered nineteen.
The actual damage done was but a part of the
effect of the Confederate cruisers' action; they
involved the United States and Great Britain in a
passionate controversy. Under the usual practice
in time of war, no war- vessel or privateer of either
belligerent enters the waters or ports of neutrals
^ For the award, see Am. Annual Cyclop, 1872, p. 261.
2 Scharf , Confed. Navy, 814 et seq.
^ Am. Annual Cyclop., 1865, p. 183.
i865]
NAVAL WARFARE
175
except by special leave of the authorities: if such
permission is granted, vessels are expected to go to
sea within twenty-four hours, except in stress of
weather, and take on only supplies necessary for
immediate use. Neutral ports and waters must not
be places of resort for war-purposes or for equipment :
only coal enough should be sold to take ships to the
nearest port of their own country; if supplied once
they ought not to be supplied again within three
months. The British foreign office issued for the
guidance of colonial authorities instructions ^ in this
sense: but in the British colonial ports often little
attention was paid to the obligations of neutrals.
The Confederate cruisers were sometimes allowed
to coal to their full capacity, and even to refit, and
in violation of the British foreign enlistment act to
replenish their crews; while at the same time the
cold shoulder was turned to the vessels of the United
States.^ In the rest of the foreign world also there
was much carelessness as to the obligations of
neutrals, the neglect of international rules becom-
ing more marked when the cause of the Union was
depressed.
Such were the conditions which made possible
the extended careers of the Confederate cruisers;
I let us now turn our attention to particular vessels.
I| The agency of one man here was so noteworthy
that he must be put in the foreground. Raphael
^ Moore, International Arbitration, I., chap, xiv., 495.
2 Porter, Naval Hist, of Civil War, 81 j.
176 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1861
Semmes was an officer of the old navy, a man of
enterprise and capacity, who, forsaking his alle-
giance, presently became captain of the Sumter,^ the
pioneer of the commerce-destroyers. She was a Ha-
vana trader of five hundred tons, converted into a
man-of-war, and in the summer of 1861 Semmes suc-
ceeded in eluding the Federal fleet at the Mississippi
passes and getting to sea. He could give and take
hard blows, but to cripple the commerce of the Union
was the task set for his ship ; and with an eye single
to that end he avoided the men-of-war that swarmed
after him, as he swooped down upon the defenceless
merchant-ships in his path. From the first he dis-
played great astuteness, escaping from the powerful
Brooklyn, which was overhauling him off Pass a
rOutre, by a manoeuvre which made her sails useless
in the pursuit. He began his work at once, finding
his weapon in the torch rather than the cannon, and
terror soon prevailed. It was an ignoble warfare
directed against the civilian ship-master, unarmed
and unsuspecting: it was, however, very effective,
a blow at the Union resources which told forcibly.
It is only fair to say that, except for burning his
prizes, Semmes did nothing for which there was not
precedent in the usages of war.^ Forgetting their
own history of intrepid service on privateers and
cruisers from early colonial days, throughout the
War of 181 2, the United States set up an angry
* Semmes, Service Afloat, chap. ix.
^Soley, Blockade and Cruisers, 229.
NAVAL WARFARE
177
outcry against the operations of the Sumter as
barbarous. The conscience of the world was begin-
ning at that time to be sensitive. In 1856 the
United States, through Mavcy, then secretary of
state, suggested an amendment to the Declaration
of Paris, with a view to prohibiting in war the
seizure of private property on the sea/ This was
not adopted, and though the more active spirit
of humanity among civilized men plainly favored
such a prohibition, the practice both on land and
sea, during the American Civil War, fell away on
either side into methods transmitted from the rude
past. Such were the methods of Semmes : such, before
the war ended, were the methods of many honored
Federal leaders at which we shall later have to glance.
The Sumter was active throughout the rest of
1 861, destroying many ships and eluding all pursuit.
By a clever ruse at Martinique, Semmes sent the
swift Iroquois, which had overtaken him, on a wild-
goose chase southward while the Sumter sped north.
In the West Indies neutral obligations hung light-
ly on officials, and the cruiser was little troubled.
Crossing at last to Spain, the authorities at Cadiz
were colder, and in January, 1862, the Sumter found
herself at Gibraltar with Federal men-of-war close
by. She could not escape, and was at last sold,
ending her career later as a blockade-runner.^
^ Cf. Smith, Parties and Slavery (Am. Nation, XVIII.), chap,
xviii.; Exec. Docs., 34 Cong., 3 Sess., 35.
^ Soley, Blockade and Cruisers, 173 et seq.
VOL. XXI. — 12
178 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1862
Following the course of Semmes, we pass now to
the Alabama, which, having been constructed in
and having escaped from England amid circum-
stances already described/ was now awaiting her
captain. The cruises upon which she was about
to enter and the results following from them make
her one of the famous ships of history. Taking
command of the Alabama in the Azores, August 20,
1862,^ Semmes utilized his previous experience in
the Sumter, establishing accurately in the main
ocean highways the strategic points where his
depredations would tell best. He estimated how
long it would take the news of his operations to
reach the United States ; and before the eager Fed-
eral ships could find him, the commerce-destroyer,
which could render more important service than to
wait for a fight, was off to new fields.
Semmes began the cruise of the Alabama in the
North Atlantic, in two months seeking the West
Indies, whence after a second two months he dropped
southward into the track of the South American
traders; thence, after many successes, to Brazilian
waters, to the Cape of Good Hope, to the Straits
of Sunda, and still more distant spots — in each case
choosing a station where main arteries of traffic
interlace. Wherever the Alabama turned, the ocean
was enlivened with the conflagration she kindled,
the cargoes, after being rifled, perishing w4th the
* See Hosmer, Appeal to Arms (Am. Nation, XX.), 315 et seq.
^ Semmes, Service Afloat, 404.
NAVAL WARFARE
179
ships; the captured crews were disposed of with
little reference to their w^ell-being or convenience.
She was in constant motion, getting supplies from
her prizes or obsequious neutrals ; and when repairs
must be made, some obscure port was found where
there was no danger of disturbance. Sometimes
Semmes, arming his prizes, commissioned them to
act as ships-of-w^ar.
Such was the Alabama's course for nearly two
years, during which time, though swift ships and
able commanders were ever hot upon the scent, the
enemy was bafHed and the purpose of the long
cruise thoroughly carried out. Rarely has a great
end been accomplished with means so small. The
commerce-destroyer justified her name, her list of
captures amounting to sixty-eight.^ In merchant-
shipping the United States, at the appeal to arms,
stood second among the nations: this position she
lost, to a great extent through the Alabama and
her consorts, though partly through the coming in
of iron ships.
The Alabama met with a dramatic fate. Fatigued
perhaps with his success, Semmes in the summer of
1864 brought his ship back to the English Channel,
and while sheltering in Cherbourg, was challenged
by the Kearsarge, only slightly superior in size and
armament. A fierce passage-at-arms took place off
Cherbourg, June 19, 1864. Like fighting eagles the
two ships circled at speed through mile after mile.
^ Scharf, Confed. Navy, 815.
i
i8o OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1862
The practice of the Kearsarge was more certain,
though a shell lodged in her stern-post by the Ala-
bama, had it exploded, would have been fatal.
But it was the Alabama which sank at last beneath
the waves.*
The career of the Alabama far surpasses in inter-
est that of any other of the Confederate cruisers.
Semmes was both skilful and lucky; but while his
prizes surpassed in number and value those of any
other craft, much has been attributed to his ship
which belongs to others. Of the nineteen vessels
which Scharf enumerates, several were small, and
others never got fairly to sea. Glancing at those
whose activity was important, the next to note is
the Florida, which, as has been mentioned, escaped
from England in the spring of 1862 as the Oreto}
She reached Nassau, in the Bahamas, April 28,
and not far away from there was suffered by the
near-sighted officials to arm and equip herself as a
man-of-war. Entering upon a cruise, her crew,
including her captain, Maffitt, were attacked by
yellow fever: on this account, and also because she
found her armament imperfect, she sought Mobile,
getting safely under shelter of Fort Morgan in
September.^
In January, 1863, the Florida emerged, and, elud-
ing the blockaders, appeared once more at Nassau,
^Battles and Leaders, IV., 615; Naval War Records, III., 71
et seq. ^ Hosmer, Appeal to Arms {Am. Nation, XX.), 315.
2 Soley, Blockade and Cruisers, 183 et seq.
i863] NAVAL WARFARE i8i
with a fresh crew and with her defects remedied.
It was just after Fredericksburg, and the British
officials were very indulgent; while the people of
the little town, who were prospering greatly because
the blockade-runners made it their rendezvous, gave
the Florida an ovation. She was allowed to stay
thirty-six hours instead of twenty-four, to obtain
coal for three months, and shortly after to obtain
still more at Barbados — all of which was contrary
to the instructions laid down in London by the
foreign ofQce. Well supplied now in every way,
her depredations became important: she ranged
from the latitude of New York to Bahia, in Brazil,
capturing and burning many prizes in much fre-
quented seas. One prize, the Clarence, was preserved
and set out independently, having a history worth
remarking. Receiving a small armament and a
crew under Lieutenant Read, the Clarence, in June,
1863, after Chancellorsville and when Vallandigham
was stirring up Ohio, appeared close off the coast,
and between capes of Virginia and Portland, Maine,
made several captures. Making a transfer to the
Tacony, one of his prizes, a better ship, Read soon
had ten more prizes. By still another transfer, the
bold sailors foimd themselves on the Archer, from
which craft, in a daring boat-expedition into Port-
land harbor, they cut out the United States reve-
nue-cutter Cushing. The activity of this handful of
men much aggravated the depression of the North,
now at its lowest point. But Read was presently
1 82 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1863
captured by an expedition sent out from Portland,
and consigned to Fort Warren.
In the summer of 1863 the Florida crossed the
ocean to Brest, in France, whence six months later
she appeared again refitted. Allowed to coal at
various places, through negligence or favor, she
patrolled the Atlantic until October, 1864, when
her work came to a sudden end at Bahia, in Brazil.
Here, in port, she encountered the Federal ship
Wachuset, whose commander, Collins, paying no
attention to neutral rights, captured her, October 7.
This seizure, a gross violation of international law,
Collins sought to justify as proper retaliation for
breaches of the law of which Brazil had been guilty.
It was, however, disowned by the government as an
assumption of authority quite tmw^arranted.* The
Florida was ordered to be returned, but by an acci-
dent, the nature of which was never a mystery, she
sank in Hampton Roads.
Several vessels from which the Confederacy had
hoped much either failed entirely to get to sea or
found their efforts frustrated. The *'Laird rams"
served no good purpose ; ^ the Alexandra, crossing to
Nassau in 1863, was there held, and accomplished
nothing ; the Rappahannock, which had once been a
despatch-boat of the British navy, frightened off
early in 1864, while unprepared, and taking refuge at
^Porter, Naval Hist, of the Civil War, 813; Scharf, Confed.
Navy, chap. xxvi.
2 Hosmer, Appeal to Arms {Am. Nation, XX,), 317.
NAVAL WARFARE
Calais, was kept inactive there under the guns of a
French man-of-war ; the Nashville, a beautiful ship,
was destroyed by the monitor Montauk near Savan-
nah, February, 28, 1863. The Georgia had only a
brief career: built in the Clyde, and escaping in
April, 1863, her construction and equipment man-
aged by a British firm which was afterwards prose-
cuted, she cruised for some months in the middle
and south Atlantic. Seized at last by the Niagara^
she was taken into Boston and condemned. An
especially formidable craft was the Stonewall, a
French -built partially armored ram, which had be-
longed to Denmark. Coming late into Confederate
ownership, in March, 1865, she defied, off Ferrol, in
Spain, two Federal ships, the Niagara and Sacra-
mento, which, safe in harbor, pursued the discreet
course of remaining there. In the end she was sold
to Japan.*
With the exception of the Alabama, the most
famous and the most fortunate commerce-destroyer
was the Shenandoah, a ship of seven hundred and
fifty tons, with auxiliary steam-power, very fast,
which had been in the East India trade. She cleared
for Bombay from London, October 8, 1864; but
having been bought beforehand by Captain Bul-
loch, met near Madeira a vessel containing Captain
I. T. WaddeU of the Confederacy, together with a
crew, and also an armament; and was presently
equipped for her work. Since now American mer-
^ Scharf, Conjed. Navy, 805.
1 84 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
chant-ships were becoming rare in the ocean high-
ways, the Shenandoah followed a new course, planned
by Commander J. M. Brooke, at Richmond, who
in 1855, as a member of the North Pacific ex-
ploring expedition, had learned the habits and
haunts of the great Am.erican whaling-fleet. For-
saking the Atlantic, the Shenandoah sailed far south
to Tristan d'Acunha, landing there the crews of
prizes she had taken: afterwards she appeared in
Melbourne, Australia, where, with small respect for
the neutrality laws, the authorities allowed her to
remain a month, meantime undergoing repairs, coal-
ing abundantly, and finally, in spite of the foreign
enlistment act, recruiting forty-three men.* Thence
she started in February, 1865, upon the track of the
whalers — ships often manned by their owners, poor
men winning a livelihood in the most exposed and
dangerous of callings. Following her prey from
point to point, she was heard of among the Caroline
Islands, in the neighborhood of Honolulu, and later
in the sea of Ochotsk and at Bering's Straits. It
was an inglorious warfare, but carried on with skill,
and telling heavily. The whaling industry was al-
most extinguished. So remote were her operations
that she long failed to hear of the close of the war,
her commander not being convinced until June 28,
1865, that his cause was lost. He then set sail for
Liverpool to deliver up his ship to the British gov-
^ See text of award of the Geneva Tribunal, Am. Annual
Cyclop., 1872, p. 363.
i86s] NAVAL WARFARE
ernment. These operations, continued two months
after Lee's surrender, were the final throes of the
expiring Confederacy.
The Federal navy, at the end of 1864, when its
work in the Civil War had been substantially ac-
complished, comprised 671 vessels (a few of the num-
ber being under construction), carrying 4610 guns,
measuring 410,396 tons, and manned by 51,000 offi-
cers and sailors. The captures by the navy during
the war amounted to 1379 vessels, of which 267
were steamers.^ But, aside from its prizes, what the
navy achieved in its various fields of effort, on the
rivers, the blockaded coast, and the high seas, can-
not be put down in figures. If it be admitted that
the army was **the right arm of the government"
in maintaining the Union, then the government had
two right arms, for the work on the waters can be
postponed to no second place.
^ Lincoln, Works (ed. of 1894), IL, 609 (Message of December
5, 1864).
CHAPTER XI
SHERIDAN IN THE VALLEY
(July, i864-February, 1865)
HILE the navy, in July and August of 1864,
V V by the victory of the Kearsarge in the English
Channel and the triumph in Mobile Bay, did much
to lighten discouragement at the North, nothing
happened on land to relieve the situation either in
the eastern or western theatre. About Petersburg
and Richmond, Grant was constantly beaten back.
His strategy, so successful at Vicksburg, now came
to naught; and his hard blows accomplished no
more. No doubt the trouble was partly due to in-
efficient subordinates — men retained in high com-
mand for other than military reasons, who lacked
the soldierly quality. The chief cause, however,
of Union disaster, was the ability of Lee, who ap-
plied his armies and resources with consummate
generalship, to the confusion of his foes. Grant could
not press him so hard as to prevent his sending a
corps of his best troops to the suburbs of Washing-
ton. Thotigh Early just failed to capture the capi-
tal, it was more than three months before he ceased to
cause anxiety. As he withdrew, July 1 2 , 1864, to the
VALLEY CAMPAIGN
187
valley of Virginia before the Sixth Corps, opportune-
ly arriving, Wright followed him hard ; while Hunter,
having made a toilsome circuit by the Kanawha
and Ohio, after his attempt upon Lynchburg, could
bring the Eighth Corps to bear near Harper's Ferry :
could Hunter and Wright but unite, Early would
be in danger. Grant, anxious to strike a blow near
Richmond before Early could return to Lee, wished
to divert the Sixth and Nineteenth Corps (the latter
just arriving from Louisiana) to strengthen the force
before Petersburg. While W^right drew back tow-
ards Washington in preparation for embarking,
Crook with the Eighth Corps alone confronted
Early, and July 24 was struck heavily on the old
battle-grotmd at Kernstown. Plainly it was no
time for withdrawing troops from the valley.^
The Sixth and Nineteenth Corps marched back
through the dust and heat — for forty-six days no
rain fell — to find Crook in Maryland guarding the
South Moimtain passes, with Averell at the Potomac
fords; while Early, more alert than ever, broke up
the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and despatched a
raiding-party under McCausland into Pennsylvania.
The latter failing to receive from Chambersburg a
requisition of one hundred thousand dollars in gold,
burned the town to the ground, July 30, and departed
on similar errands. Though panic reigned, the sit-
uation presently improved. Wright joining Crook,
* Pond, Shenandoah Valley, 94 et seq.; Battles and Leaders,
IV., 500 et seq.
i88 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
the Federals again became formidable ; Averill, pur-
suing McCausland into Virginia, defeated him at
Moorefield, August 7, 1864. Grant, much harassed,
now arrived upon the scene.
C. A. Dana, at this time in Washington, makes
very vivid the need of a head ; * things were at sixes
and sevens, and a radical change was demanded.
Four military departments, not long before con-
stituted— West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Washington,
and the Middle Department — were consolidated into
the Middle Military Division, to command which the
best man must be found. Grant suggested W. B.
Franklin, whom he highly esteemed; but a shadow
from Fredericksburg and the Red River campaign
hung over Franklin. The lieutenant-general then
spoke of Meade, whom Hancock might replace
at the head of the Army of the Potomac, while
Gibbon took the Second Corps. ^ That, too, seemed
inadmissible; whereupon Grant fixed upon Sheri-
dan, a selection straightway approved. He was
thirty -three years old, so young, Lincoln frankly
told him, as to cause apprehension in view of the
vast responsibility he was to assume. His prin-
cipal subordinates, and even officers less prominent,
outranked and in some cases had commanded him.
Wright, when at the head of a department, had
recommended Sheridan for a brigadier's commission;
W. H. Emory, the excellent veteran at the head of
^ Dana, Recollections, 2^0.
2 Pond, Shenandoah Valley. 112.
i864] VALLEY CAMPAIGN
189
the Nineteenth Corps, graduated from West Point
the year Sheridan was born;^ D. A. Russell, a di-
vision-general of the Sixth Corps, when a captain,
long had Sheridan under him as a subaltern. These
worthy seniors, however, took up their work with-
out a murmur, doing their best ; while a noble band
of younger men pressed on towards high places.
Crook was Sheridan's classmate ; Merritt and Custer,
in their portraits of that time, look like boys ; while
Charles Russell Lowell, first scholar of the Harvard
class of 1854, was brilliantly leading a cavalry brigade.
Though the force in the Middle Military Division
was large, Sheridan's army in the field numbered
only about twenty - six thousand men, to whom
Early opposed about twenty thousand.^ Early was
backed, however, by a friendly population, among
whom the young men were eager for partisan ser-
vice. Ashby was gone, but Gilmor, McNeil, above
all Mosby, remained, and at the head of guerilla
bands hung always upon the skirts of the Federals,
cutting off detachments, stragglers, and all trains not
strongly guarded. It is not pleasant to record that
the war was now assimiing a more ruthless aspect
than heretofore.^ ''In pushing up the Shenandoah
Valley," wrote Grant, August 5, "it is desirable that
nothing should be left to invite the enemy to re-
turn. Take everything necessary for the troops —
horses, mules, cattle, food, and forage, and such as
^Cullum, Register of U. S. Military Acad., art. Emory.
2 Sheridan, Personal Memoirs, I., 471-475. ^Ibid., 486.
igo OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
cannot be consumed, destroy. The people should
be informed that so long as an army can subsist
among them, recurrences of these raids must be
expected, and we are determmed to stop them at
all hazards." ^ While dwellings were to be pre-
served, the devastation was to be so complete that
* ' a crow flying over the country would need to carry
his rations." The garden of Virginia was to be
made a desert. The valley population, among
whom were a considerable element of non-resistant
Dunkards and Quakers, had been allowed to a large
extent to commute for service in the field by fur-
nishing subsistence, which had been rendered plenti-
fully.^ By laying waste the farms this was made
impossible. If the Confederates never systemati-
cally practised like measures, it was due to the lack
of opportunity and not of disposition. McCaus-
land's raid on Chambersburg showed them to be
without scruple.
As Sheridan, in the first days of August, with his
strong army resting on a secure base near Harper's
Ferry, faced the Confederates, Early retired south-
ward along the valley pike, so much tramped in
these years, to Strasburg, whither Sheridan cau-
tiously followed, the mountain Massanutten, as two
years before, looking down on the manoeuvres.^
Here Early was formidably reinforced, and Sheridan
1 Pond, Shenandoah Valley, 118; Cf. Sheridan, Personal Mem-
oirs, I., 464. 2 Pond, Shenandoah, Valley, 2.
3 War Records, Serial No. 90, pp. 8-613 (Shenandoah Valley).
i864] VALLEY CAMPAIGN 191
prudently countermarched before the refluent enemy,
once more to Harper's Ferry, which, said the wits,
ought rather to be called, from its periodical occu-
pations, Harper's Weekly. Once more Early wreck-
ed the Baltimore & Ohio road, and set Pennsyl-
vania into panic ; while Sheridan, whose reputation
with many was merely that of a hare-brained and
foolhardy fighter, kept to his lines, with what the
impatient country deemed sluggishness.
Towards the end of August, Grant demonstrated
heavily before Petersburg; Lee, it was believed,
must withdraw troops from his valley army to make
good his hold at Richmond, and at last the with-
drawal was announced. Through Crook, Sheridan
communicated with a young Quakeress, a school-
mistress of Winchester, who loved the old flag.
When one day tidings came from her that Ander-
son had marched southward, Sheridan sprang im-
petuously upon his weakened adversary.^ On the
morning of September 19, 1864, to Sheridan's 37,711
effectives, Early could oppose scarcely half as many ;
yet, thinking light of his opponent, he marched
away from his post at Winchester, with a heavy de-
tachment, leaving in fact but the one isolated di-
vision of Ramseur to hold the place. Sheridan
crossed the Opequon Creek, and the infantry was
soon driving Ramseur to the rear. An unfortunate
delay on the part of the infantry gave Early time
to return, when Rodes and Gordon hurried at once
* Sheridan, Personal Memoirs, IL, 5.
192 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
to Ramseur's help. A brilliant flank attack, in
which Russell, of the Sixth Corps, lost his life,
checked the Confederate advance. Just here fell,
on the other side, Robert E. Rodes, a splendid sol-
dier, who led Stonewall Jackson's charge at Chan-
cellorsville, and had never failed in action. Early
now was forced back, fleeing south to Strasburg
without pause. The losses in killed, wounded, and
missing were, Federal, about five thousand; Con-
federate, about four thousand.*
The victory of Opequon Creek, though decided,
was not crushing, Early declaring that Sheridan
showed great incapacity in not destroying him.^ It
was, however, the first good news that had come to
the North from Virginia for many a day, and it
was made the most of. Closely related to this fight
was that of Fisher's Hill, where Early in his flight
paused in a strong position west of Massanutten.
Sheridan, whose natural impetuosity, long pent up,
now had full course, stormed after him, his numer-
ous and excellent cavalry vexing the Confederate
rear and flank by every art known to troopers.
Early made the most of his resources, posting two
brigades of cavalry in the narrow Luray Valley, east
of Massanutten, besides his main front in the western
valley. September 22, 1864, while Sheridan directed
his main army against Fisher's Hill, he sent Torbert,
with a strong cavalry force, up the Luray Valley
* Livermore, Numbers and Losses, 127.
2 Early, Last Year of the War, 75.
i864] VALLEY CAMPAIGN
193
with the idea of crossing the mountain to assail
Early's rear from Newmarket. Through the slack
conduct of Torbert the Confederates escaped com-
plete surrounding and capture, though they suffered
a great disaster. While Crook charged from the
west at Fisher's Hill, Wright and Emory attacked
in front. A large number of prisoners and many
guns were taken, and the remnant of the army driven
south in a disorganized mass.^ The pursuit contin-
ued to Harrisonburg, to Port Republic, and thence
to the gaps of the Blue Ridge, through which the
fugitives hurried ; for the moment the dispossession
of the Confederates from their beloved valley was
complete.
While the troops of Sheridan now ranged at will
from Staunton to Harper's Ferry, and his trium-
phant corps occupied every point of vantage,
neither the spirit nor the resources of the foe were
exhausted, so that swiftness and vigilance were
as necessary as ever. The policy of devastation
drove the population to fury, and guerillas led by
Mosby and his colleagues swarmed like hornets
wherever there was a chance for reprisal. Nor
could Grant so threaten Lee as to prevent the de-
tachment from Richmond of a new army. Ker-
shaw's infantry and Rosser's cavalry were imme-
diately put in motion to succor the valley, and
Early, undiscouraged, rallied the fugitives and
stragglers till he was strong again. Meantime, on
* War Records, Serial No. 90, p. 170 et seq. (Fisher's Hill).
VOL. XXI.— 13
194 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
the Federal side the scheme of devastation was in
full course. Two thousand barns and seventy mills,
filled with the products of the recent harvest, went
up in flames; w^hile all horses, mules, beeves, and
sheep that could be found went to the victors: to
break their power to produce food, even the imple-
ments of the farmers were destroyed. As a rule,
dwellings were carefully spared; but near Harrison-
burg, Lieutenant Meigs, a young engineer officer,
was killed by guerillas; whereupon every house
within a circuit of five miles, by Sheridan's orders,
was burned.^ It was through smoke and ashes at
last that the Federals marched from the upper
valley back to Strasburg, and close in their rear
followed Early, strengthened and confident.
October was now advancing, and Grant pressed
more urgently than ever for aid from Sheridan in
his ill-starred campaign east of the Blue Ridge.
Why did the situation in the valley need a great
army ? Surely, after what had been done, the Eighth
Corps, with cavalry, ought to suffice for a guard,
while Wright and perhaps Emory might come back
to the James. The Sixth Corps was indeed put in
motion, but at the moment occurred a thing omi-
nous. At a point on Three Top, the triple summit
of Massanutten, twenty-five hundred feet high, was
a hostile signal - station, from which one day the
Federals made out from the waving flags the follow-
ing message: ''Be ready to move as soon as my
^ Sheridan, Personal Memoirs, I., 484 et seq.
VALLEY CAMPAIGN
195
troops join you and we will crush Sheridan. — Long-
street." It was true that Longstreet, after his
wounds in the Wilderness, was in the field again.
Was he coming to the valley, or was it only a Con-
federate ruse? Sheridan was in doubt, but to be
safe he kept together his three corps and his cavalry.
As to himself, however, he thought he might be
spared for a few days, since Halleck was urgent for
a consultation with him at Washington. Leaving
his camp October 16, he took a train east of the
Blue Ridge and was in the capital on the 17th.
His errand accomplished, he was back at Winchester,
twenty miles from his army, on the evening of the
1 8th. Hearing from the front that all was quiet,
the general slept soimdly till morning.
The message caught from the flags on Three Top
was probably the hoax of some irresponsible joker:
it could not have been sent with Early's connivance,
for its natural result was to strengthen the force in
front of him : Sheridan, on departing from Washing-
ton, left his army alert and concentrated, with the
trustworthy Wright in command. But the Con-
federates were not idle. General J. B. Gordon and
Captain Jed Hotchkiss, the latter an accomplished
engineer officer, climbed Massanutten and surveyed
from Three Top the Federal camps in the valley
below. Through the auttimnal woods could be seen
on the Federal left, where Cedar Creek enters the
north fork of the Shenandoah, the tents of the
Eighth Corps, the division of Thoburn on the Fed-
196 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
eral left : farther back, en echelon towards the west,
lay the Nineteenth Corps ; and last the Sixth Corps,
the latter well towards Middletown, the hamlet north
of Strasburg along the line of the valley pike.*
What happened to Wright on October 19, 1864,
Sheridan generously declares might easily have
happened to himself.^ Long before light, Kershaw,
fording the creek, assailed the Eighth Corps in front ;
while Gordon, having closely marked the path-
way, threw himself upon the left flank. In the dark-
ness, thickened by a fog from the streams, the
Confederates, who had left even their canteens
behind lest a rattling might betray their approach,
effected a complete surprise. No Federal com-
mander was warier than Crook, but no warning
came even to him. Thoburn was killed at once,
and his division thrown into confusion. Gallantly
active in the wreck was Colonel Rutherford B.
Hayes, commanding the other division, but the
charge could not be stemmed; and soon the Nine-
teenth Corps was scarcely less demoralized, capable
and well-disciplined though its divisions were, under
William Dwight and Cuvier Grover. At length the
Sixth Corps became involved, as the lava-flood of
Confederate valor poured northward. Early himself,
now at the head of the troops of Wharton, stimulat-
ing the fervor. The Union lines had time to form.
Ricketts replaced Wright in command of the corps
* Gordon, Reminiscences of the Civil War, 333,
2 Sheridan, Personal Memoirs, II., 96.
i864] VALLEY CAMPAIGN 197
when the latter took the army; but both generals
were struck down with wounds, w^hereupon Getty
took the corps, Lewis A. Grant, ''Vermont Grant,"
heading Getty's division. Though the losses and
confusion were appalling, the Sixth Corps stood,
Grant's Vermonters being conspicuous in their
steadfastness. It was now between eight and nine
o'clock; the fog was lifting so that the peril could
be seen; the Confederates, as often before, too con-
fident of victory, were leaving their colors to plun-
der the captured camps. ^ Wright, in spite of a
wound in the jaw, was still on the field, and though
driven from his position some miles northward, was
not conquered.
Sheridan at Winchester, on the morning of the
19th, took a comfortable breakfast, undisturbed by
reports from the southern outskirts that cannonad-
ing could be heard. The night before all was quiet :
Wright had announced a reconnoissance, and the
volleys might easily come from that. As he set out
up the valley at a leisurely pace, the low, continuous
rumble became alarming, and he soon encountered
signs of a great disaster — frightened fugitives and
trains on a run to the rear. Ordering the brigade
at Winchester to form a cordon across the turnpike
and arrest all flight, he sped forward upon the road,
the evidences of rout becoming more plain with
every mile. To the unvarying tales of terror he
opposed appeals, commands, imprecations, incite-
^ This is denied by J. B. Gordon, Reminiscences, 355 et seq.
198 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
merits to action; and behind him as he passed, the
fugitives, with courage restored, turned about and
hurried back to duty. Probably during the war
no other such exhibition occurred of the power con-
tained in the magnetic spell of a born leader. He
halted at the position of "Vermont Grant's" men
before the forenoon ended; and Custer, galloping
across the fields from the cavalry, threw his arms
about his neck. The retreat had gone far enough:
there was still time to repossess the old camps, per-
haps to do more.
The afternoon brought a Federal triumph. Against
the wall of Massanutten the thunders of the battle
w^ere redoubled : in the disordered mob were extem-
porized formations that proved effective: right and
left the cavalry swept forward pitiless ; the unbroken
Sixth Corps was in the heart of the conflict ; the hold
of Early upon the field was beaten off; by nightfall
no enemy remained north of the stream save as a
captive. Fifteen hundred and ninety-one Federals,
most of whom Early had taken in the first onset,
were carried off to Richmond: besides these there
was a Federal loss of 4074, among them several of
the best officers of the army. Said Sheridan of
Lowell, w^ho received his death wound in the mo-
ment of victory: "I do not think there was a qual-
ity I could have added to him : he was the perfec-
tion of a man and a soldier." ^ A Confederate loss of
nearly three thousand was inflicted, young General
^ Pond, Shenandoah Valley, 240.
VALLEY CAMPAIGN
199
Ramseur being especially lamented; the cannon
v/hich Early had captured were all retaken, with
twenty-four of his own. While the infantry paused,
the horsemen pursued, until Early's army, stripped
of its trains, its flags, to a large extent of its weap-
ons, seemed to melt away into the friendly country
that surrounded it.^
It was a great defeat, but there was no sign of
yielding. Sheridan retired to Winchester, pressed
by Grant to operate east of the Blue Ridge and de-
tach troops to Richmond. But even now it was
not safe. Rosser was boldly active in the lower
valley; and Early, though with only two brigades,
stood threatening at Staunton; the irregulars were
by no means disposed of. It was not until winter
that a part of Sheridan's army reached City Point;
with the remainder he undertook winter expedi-
tions of great hardship against the Virginia Central
Railroad; and finally, in February, against Early
about Staunton. March 2, Custer swept up at
Waynesboro all that remained in the w^ay of a regu-
lar force, a few war-worn men and trophies, more
pathetic than glorious, of battered arms and tat-
tered banners, leaving Sheridan free to appear in a
new theatre.
The Federal armies in Georgia and in the Shenan-
doah Valley had, after difficult struggles, won great
triumphs : the Army of the Potomac met harder fort-
* Early, Last Year of the War, 82 ; Gordon, Reminiscence Sy
chaps, xxiv., xxv.
200 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
une. Its labors and sacrifices were colossal, but the
spring of 1865 arrived before the series of humilia-
tions which began nearly a year before fairly ended.
We have traced these to the midsummer of 1864.
Then follow Deep Bottom, the Weldon Road, Reams'
Station, Fort Harrison, the Boydton Plank Road,
Hatcher's Run — a line of names with most melan-
choly associations, stretching on to the end of the
winter. With dreadful loss. Grant tried now on
this side, now on that, to pierce Lee's impregnable
defence — a dismal monotony of failure.^ Yet Lee's
communications were partially broken; the strait
at Richmond became acute; and the constant im-
pact of the Federal hammer, though often as disas-
trous to the smiter as to the smitten, slowly told on
the scanty resources of the South; the North could
stand attrition. In the Federal grip, Lee could
send no help to Johnston and Hood, and only a
meagre measure to Early in the valley. The iron
will of Grant, hard and constant day in and day out,
bore down upon the Confederate resistance. The
breaking-point was near.
1 War Records, Serial No. 87, pp. 1-956 (Richmond Campaign);
Battles and Leaders, IV., 533 et seq.
CHAPTER XII
SHERMAN'S MARCH TO THE SEA
(September, i864-December, 1864)
ON the night of September i, 1864, Sherman,
then well south of Atlanta, heard explosions
which gave evidence that Hood was abandoning
the city. Next day he learned that he had not
been deceived. Slocum, who had been summoned
from Vicksburg to command the Twentieth Corps in
place of Hooker (who now resigned in displeasure
at the promotion over his head of juniors, and disap-
peared from history), left his camp on the Chatta-
hoochee and took possession of the city; the four
months' campaign had succeeded.^
For a week or two a reaction set in from the in-
tense exertion of the summer.^ After the fatigue
and strain, rest was necessary; the terms of regi-
ments were expiring ; new troops were arriving, and
must be placed and drilled. The portion of the Six-
teenth Corps present in Georgia, having lost through
wounds its commander, G. M. Dodge, was distrib-
uted, one division going to the Twentieth Corps, and
1 W. T. Sherman, Memoirs, II., 108.
2 Cox, Military Reminiscences, II., 292 et seq.
202 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
another to the Seventeenth; the name Sixteenth
Corps henceforth belongs to the two divisions now
in Missouri, commanded by A. J. Smith, twelve
thousand serviceable men, as was often proved.
But neither the situation nor the commander made
a long-continued languor possible. Not far off, at
Lovejoy's Station, Hood by the middle of the
month became active again; and Sherman was
ready for new movements.
We have seen that at this time in the Shenandoah
Valley the war was assuming a severer aspect than
before; Grant prescribed and Sheridan carried out
a policy of devastation that was new. The spirit
in the West was no milder, a foretaste of what was
to come appearing in an order for the destruction of
Atlanta and the deportation of its people. What-
ever the city contained that could be made useful
to the Confederacy — factories, storehouses, machine-
shops, mills — whether distinctly public property or
the possessions of individuals which might be used
for public purposes, was to be sacrificed; since
Atlanta had become a great centre for supplies, and
had now little importance otherwise, the order
meant a wiping out of the city; its population must
go elsewhere, the Federal general undertaking no
more than to conduct the exodus humanely.^ Hood
made an earnest protest against the "barbarity"
of the measure, to which Sherman replied with
equal vigor, a controversy of some length taking
* W. T. Sherman, Memoirs, II., iii.
i864] MARCH TO THE SEA 203
place. But there was no mitigation of the order on
the part of Sherman.
It was, however, a time for weapons rather than
words. Jefferson Davis appeared in September in
the camp of Hood, to concert plans and apply incite-
ments. Beauregard, too, who had done excellent
service about Petersburg, after his successful de-
fence of Charleston, came once more to the West as
commander-in-chief,* soon making his headquarters
in the familiar camp at Corinth ; while leaving Hood
free in the field, he was near at hand for counsel, his
jurisdiction including also the region farther west
and south throughout Alabama and Mississippi, over
which Dick Taylor had been placed.^
Passing around Atlanta, Hood was presently on
Sherman's communications, breaking up the rail-
road to Chattanooga and compelling an advance by
the Federal army northward to the neighborhood
of Marietta. October 5, the important position at
Allatoona was in great danger; but Sherman, giv-
ing and receiving signals over the heads of the
enemy, from Kenesaw Mountain to a station eigh-
teen miles distant, was at last assured of the arrival
of the division of John M. Corse, and that Allatoona
would be held.^ Hood made another attempt at
Resaca; but the duplicates were close at hand for
every part of the railroad that might be destroyed,
^ Roman, Beauregard, II., 283.
2 Taylor, Destruction and Reconstruction, 206 et seq.
^ W. T. Sherman, Memoirs, II., 147.
OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
and Colonel Wright quickly made good every loss.
** Hood soon marched farther west into northern Ala-
bama, fixing himself at last near Florence, on the
bank of the Tennessee River. Sherman followed,
being at the end of October at Gaylesville, near
the Georgia line, a point beyond which he did not
pursue.
In these days, in fact, Sherman was maturing a
memorable plan — namely, to cut loose from his
base of the summer and march with a great army
to the coast, depending upon the country traversed
for his support; exactly where he should emerge he
was in doubt — whether at Charleston, Savannah,
Pensacola, or Mobile. He was convinced that such
a march might be made, and that in his absence,
Thomas, with troops that were available, could cope
with Hood. His sanguine spirit was sure that,
could his idea prevail, the heart of the South might
be penetrated while the force of Hood was overcome.
It was not easy to persuade others. Thomas, to
whom a most essential part was assigned, doubted
the feasibility of the plan; Lincoln and Grant were
full of hesitation, the latter being disposed to in-
sist that Hood should be destroyed before the march
to the sea was attempted/
This reluctance was well grounded, for the idea
was far from prudent, and critics still urge that the
risks should not have been encountered.^ This great
^ W. T. Sherman, Memoirs, 153 et seq.
2 Ropes, in Atlantic Monthly, LXVIIl., 200.
i864] MARCH TO THE SEA
205
army would throw itself, without provisions, into
the midst of a numerous, brave, and desperately
hostile population, to make its way as it could
through hundreds of miles to its new base, leaving
behind, unvanquished, an army of more than fifty
thousand excellent soldiers under very capable direc-
tion. "Nothing venture nothing have" is a maxim
more applicable in warfare perhaps than in any
other sphere; the brilliant successes of Lee came
through discarding prudence and taking great risks.
Sherman's superiors considered his idea too auda-
cious; but finally, on November 2, Grant yielded,
telegraphing, "Go on as you propose." The plan
was pushed at once with all possible energy.
Sherman picked for his expedition sixty-two
thousand men, divided into four corps,* the Four-
teenth, under Jefferson C. Davis, the Fifteenth,
Peter J. Osterhaus (Logan, the proper commander,
being absent), the Seventeenth, Frank P. Blair, and
the Twentieth, A. S. Williams: the Fourteenth and
Twentieth Corps constituted the left wing, under
Henry W. Slocuni; the Fifteenth and Seventeenth
I the right wing, under Oliver O. Howard. Included
I in the number were five thousand cavalry under
Judson Kilpatrick, and there were sixty-five guns.
In the rigid selection, poor or doubtful material was
sent to the rear. Every man was a seasoned veteran
in the best strength and morale ; and as perfect as
j ^ War Records, Serial No. 92, pp. 1-4 18 (Savannah Campaign);
(I Cox, March to the Sea, Franklin and Nashville.
1
2o6 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
the force was the equipment, though there was noth-
ing superfluous. There were six hundred ambulances
and twenty-five hundred wagons, the latter sepa-
rated into four trains, one for each corps, each train
on the march stretching out five miles. While the
arms were of the best and ammunition plentiful,
the store of food was small: the country was to
supply that. Nor were there tents: Sherman him-
self had only a ''fly" — an outer cover; the army in
general had nothing but the blue canopy. Stripped
thus for work, well shod, clothed, weaponed, in good
heart, used to victory, trusting their leaders, full of
American intelligence, it is hard to conceive of a
more perfect military instrument than Sherman's
army.
Communication with Chattanooga was broken
November 12, 1864, Atlanta was left behind on the
1 6th, the conflagration of everything in the city that
could be made of service to the Confederacy conclud-
ing the occupation. To the relentlessness of the
spirit in which Sherman set forth for Savannah —
for he determined upon the eastward march — he
gave the fullest and frankest expression: "If the
people raise a howl against my barbarity and cruelty,
I will answer that war is war and not popularity-
seeking. If they want peace, they and their rela-
tives must stop the war." To Governor Brown, of
Georgia, whom he hoped to detach from the Con-
federacy, he sent a message that, '*If you remain
inert, I will be compelled to go ahead and devastate
i864] MARCH TO THE SEA 207
the State in its whole length and breadth.'* He
telegraphed Grant, October 9: ''Until we can re-
populate Georgia, it is useless for us to occupy it;
but the utter destruction of its roads, horses, and
people will cripple their military resources. I can
make this march and make Georgia howl." On
October 19 he telegraphed to his commissary,
Beckwith: "I propose to sally forth to ruin Geor-
gia and bring up on the sea- shore. Make all dispo-
sitions accordingly."^
The formal field orders, issued November 9, were
less truculent in tone. While the army was "to
forage liberally on the country," order was to pre-
vail. Each brigade w^as to have its foraging party,
properly organized and commanded by ''discreet
officers." Soldiers were forbidden "to enter dwell-
ings or commit any trespass," while taking what
they might find in gardens. Corps commanders
alone had power to destroy mills, houses, cotton-
gins, etc. Where the army was unmolested, no
destruction of such property was to be permitted;
but if roads were obstructed or bushwhacking oc-
curred, "army commanders should order and enforce
a devastation more or less unsparing, according to
the measure of such hostility." ^
"I remember well," says Sherman, describing an
occurrence such as must often have happened, "the
appeal of a very respectable farmer against our
^W. T, Sherman, Memoirs, II., iii, 138, 152, 159.
^Ibid., 175.
2o8 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
men driving away his fine flock of sheep. I ex-
plained to him that we were a strong, hungry crowd
and needed plenty of food; that Uncle Sam was
deeply interested in our continued health. We
preferred Illinois beef, but mutton would have to
answer. Poor fellow! I don't believe he was con-
vinced of the wisdom or wit of my explanation." ^
The nature of the general was indeed kindly and
wholesome, and that, too, was the character of the
men whom he commanded: they were really averse
to cruelty, and though in the stern warfare a sad
overturn of ordinary ethics came about, yet in
some ways there was a remarkable abstention from
violence: there was almost no wanton slaying of
men or maltreatment of women from first to last.
No doubt the disposition of the soldiers would have
been far milder but for the fact that thirty-two
thousand Federal prisoners at Andersonville, within
the state, they believed were dying of starvation,
though in a land of apparent plenty.
The army set out in perfect autumnal weather, in
the highest spirits, and it soon became apparent
that their enterprise was to be in the nature of a
cheerful excursion, rather than a course of peril
and hardship. The country teemed from an abun-
dant harvest. Howard struck southeast towards
Macon : ^ Slocum, whom Sherman accompanied,
marched towards Augusta, the diverging directions
* W. T. Sherman, Memoirs, II., 158.
' Howard, in Battles and Leaders, IV., 663.
i864] MARCH TO THE SEA 209
of the wings perplexing the foe as to the destination.
Indeed, no effective opposition was possible for the
South: a skirmish took place near Macon between
Georgia troops and one brigade of the Fifteenth
Corps ; and the left wing was aware of the neighbor-
hood of Wheeler on its flank with a small body of
cavalry. In the main, the progress was quite un-
impeded, excepting that the negroes trooped from
far and near, young and old, sick and well, in a
vague, childlike hope of being led into some prom-
ised land of plenty and freedom. Receiving a
certain number of able-bodied men as pioneers,
Sherman turned the rest back : they must patiently
await the good time to come.
Three hundred miles lay between Atlanta and
Savannah: after a week the two wings were to
rendezvous at Milledgeville. Marching from twelve
to fifteen miles a day, this was easily accomplished
by November 23.* Leaving Sherman well on his
way, let us turn to Thomas, whose task proved
to be more difficult than that of his chief.
Grant sent west from the Army of the Potomac
James H. Wilson, to lead the cavalry, with the
work of which arm in the Atlanta campaign Sher-
man had not been satisfied. Grant thought Wilson
would increase the value of the cavalry fifty per cent.,
and at first desired that Wilson should attempt the
march to the sea, while Sherman and the infantry
should remain behind to dispose of Hood. Different
^ Nichols, Story of the Great March, 56.
VOL. XXI.— 14
^10 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
counsel prevailing, Wilson — a young soldier of the
West Point class of i860 — now set against the re-
doubtable Forrest — remained with Thomas. No-
vember was well advanced before Hood was able
to move/ He had been slowly accumulating troops
and supplies for a campaign, as the railroads were
everywhere broken up and the region impoverished
and bare of men. But a formidable army of 53,958
men was at last ready, massed in three corps, under
A. P. Stewart, S. D. Lee, and B. F. Cheatham,
besides the cavalry of Forrest, nearly ten thousand
strong. The latter was at his best, exciting Sher-
man's ''admiration " by capturing, October 29, with
his troopers and small field-guns, two Tennessee River
gun-boats and five transports.^
To oppose Hood, Thomas throughout the fall was
only scantily provided. Sherman proposed at first
to leave with Thomas only the Fourth Corps, under
D. S. Stanley; but finally spared also the Twenty-
third Corps, under Schofield, the two making up
about twenty-five thousand men. A. J. Smith,
also, with his two divisions of the Sixteenth Corps,
of about twelve thousand men, was to arrive when
he could from western Missouri. Besides these,
Thomas had Wilson's cavalry, in great part un-
mounted and not organized, and could draw a few
thousand troops from garrisons at fortified posts
* War Records, Serial No. 93, pp. 21-776 (North Alabama and
Middle Tennessee).
2 Cox, March to the Sea, Franklin and Nashville, 15.
MARCH TO THE SEA
211
and established as railroad guards; and in a strait
he might arm the quartermaster's clerks and em-
ployes at Nashville and elsewhere — untrained men
from whom little could be expected. Thomas,
though not inferior in numbers to Hood, was in
fact ill-prepared, his force being to a considerable
extent raw and widely scattered. Ropes, who
doubts the wisdom of this whole undertaking of
Sherman, urges that he should have at least spared
his lieutenant twelve thousand more men, and made
his march with fifty thousand.^ Sherman admits
at the time of his departure ''things looked squally."
It was with meagre resources that Thomas confronted,
in November, his desperate and skilful adversaries.
The Civil War offers few better examples of mili-
tary work, from the general-in-chief down, than the
Nashville campaign. Hood's advance began No-
vember 20, and was pressed impetuously towards
Nashville, the Confederate leader well knowing his
advantage.^ Thomas posted Schofield with the
Fourth and Twenty-third Corps, at the moment his
only trustworthy and properly prepared troops,
near the Tennessee line, with instructions to delay
the march of Hood to the uttermost, retiring upon
Nashville only as he was forced.^ Schofield per-
formed his task with great coolness and ability.
With numbers less than half the Confederate force,
* Ropes, in Atlantic Monthly, LXVIII., 198 et seq.
* Hood, in Battles and Leaders, IV., 425.
^ Schofield, Forty-six Years in the Army, 425.
212 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
he boldly barred the way northward, yielding only
when Hood, flanking him on the left, was on the
point of striking in upon his rear at Spring Hill.
Here apparently the Confederates lost a great op-
portunity, and whether the commander or a sub-
ordinate was to blame is much controverted.^ At
all events, Schofield with all his trains and men
passed northward safely on the turnpike, while
their foes slept peacefully about their bivouac-fires
not many rods distant. A few miles farther on, at
the town of Franklin, the Harpeth River crossed
the line of retreat, and the bridges had been partly
destroyed. To save his trains, Schofield here made
a stand, November 30.
Leaving the Fourth Corps, under Stanley, and the
Twenty-third Corps, under Jacob D. Cox, on the
south bank, while Wilson with the cavalry obstructed
the fords to the east before Forrest, Schofield him-
self took post on a fortified hill on the north bank,
whence the whole neighborhood could be overlooked,
and also commanded by the cannon which were
hastily placed. The trains rumbled steadily on over
the bridges which had been partially repaired, and
meantime, throughout the forenoon the two corps
prepared for battle as they could. ^ Hood was right
at hand, himself so crippled with old wounds as to
be obliged to lie prostrate, but he infused into his
army all possible fire.
* Hood, Advance and Retreat, 292.
' Schofield, Forty-six Years in the Army, 175.
1864] MARCH TO THE SEA 213
The attack was made towards four o'clock of the
short autiimn day ; ^ and into the brief twilight and
into a few hundred yards space on either side of
the turnpike was compressed one of the most dread-
ful tragedies of the entire war, the deadly battle be-
tween Schofield and Hood, classmates and former
friends. Hood's troops were not fully up, lacking
two divisions of the corps of S. D. Lee. He had
therefore about twenty-seven thousand men, to
whom Schofield opposed about the same number.^
The assailants flung themselves upon the slight
Federal intrenchments with a reckless bravery ex-
traordinary even for such soldiers as they, and at the
outset came near gaining an advantage that would
have been decisive. The division commander who
covered the Federal rear in the retreat from Spring
Hill, contrary to orders left two brigades isolated
on the turnpike, a furlong or so out from the line
of works. These were struck with the utmost im-
petuosity by an entire corps, and fleeing, as they
were at once forced to do, in a few moments they
came down in disorder upon their friends. Right
upon their heels, intermingled with them, indeed,
charged the enemy ; the troops in position could not
fire without killing friends as well as foes ; immedi-
ately the crowd of fugitives was throwing the lines
in the earthworks into confusion, and the pur-
suers climbed with the pursued into the intrench-
* Hood, Advance and Retreat, 294.
^ LiYermore, Numbers and Losses, 131,
214 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
ments. Cox was fortunately at the point of dan-
ger. The brigade of Opdycke by its steadfastness
prevented a disaster, and, in general, troops could
not behave better.
East, south, and west the assaults were pressed
with fury; the inner and outer slopes of the slight
parapets in some cases were held respectively by
Federals and Confederates, who fought hand to
hand across the crests. But the volleys of the de-
fenders were unremitting and deadly; and from
across the river the rifled guns at Schofield's posi-
tion crushed many who escaped the musketry. The
repulse at last was complete, and rarely has the loss
been so large in proportion to the number engaged.
About six thousand Confederates fell before Hood
would withdraw, among whom were twelve officers
of the rank of general.^ One cannot stand to-day
at the Carter House, where the conflict focussed,
surveying the field in front, over which the assail-
ants drove the routed outposts, marking the spot
at the distance of a stone's throw where Cleburne
was slain at the front of his fiery colimm on the
very muzzles of Cox's infantry, without feeling his
heart beat quick with excitement. It was a nar-
row chance, but the repulse was complete. Before
the night ended, Schofield, whose losses were scarce-
ly a third those of Hood, took up his march, and
*Cox, March to tlie Sea, Franklin and Nashville, 97; Cox, Mil-
itary Reminiscences, II., chaps, xliii,, xliv.; Cox, Battle of Frank-
lin, passim.
1 864] MARCH TO THE SEA 215
next day, with trains, guns, and troops in good order,
covered the twenty miles to Nashville.
Great anxiety prevailed as to what Thomas could
do to stem Hood's northward rush. In truth, the
situation was very precarious. Throughout the
fall, Thomas had to face the concentrated force of
Hood with an inferior and widely scattered army.
The country, the administration. Grant himself,
appeared to lack an appreciation of his difficulties.
He was censured for sluggishness when he really had
at hand no proper means with which to strike. At
last, in December, John A. Logan was sent to super-
sede him, while Grant, quite too impatient, set out
from City Point for the West. Nevertheless, all
worked to a good end. While Schofield delayed
and crippled his powerful adversary, the fine di-
visions of A. J. Smith had time to arrive from Mis-
souri; an important contingent came in from the
outside garrisons, the most nimierous and effective
part being a detachment from Chattanooga, under
J. B. Steedman; the clerks and porters at the great
depots stood to arms manfully. When all was
ready, a winter storm covered the country with a
glare of ice on which neither horse nor man could
move. But on December 15 operations became
possible.
A Federal victory was now really a foregone con-
clusion. Hood's force was now only half as large
as Thomas's, the Confederates having been reduced
by the campaign to less than twenty-four thou-
2i6 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
sand.* With discouragement sapping the vigor of
the men, and many of the best officers fallen, he
was, however, still occupying hills close by Nash-
ville, while the Federal army slowly but surely and
thoroughly accumulated. In the attack of Decem-
ber 15, Steedman held the left of Thomas, and did
well; Schofield had the centre; but the main work
of the day was assigned to the fresh troops of A. J.
Smith and to Wilson's cavalry, who were on the
right. The Confederates, outnumbered and dis-
heartened, were soon driven; nor was a second
attempt to stem the Federal victory the follow-
ing day more successful. Retreat became rout, cul-
minating in an annihilation such as had followed
no previous defeat of the war. Wilson swept from
the state of Tennessee every trace of Confederate
power. The joy of the North was the more keen
from the apprehension which up to the moment of
victory had been so oppressive.
The peals and salvoes after Nashville were scarce-
ly quieted when on Christmas eve Lincoln received
the following telegram: ''I beg to present you as a
Christmas gift the city of Savannah, with one hun-
dred and fifty heavy guns, plenty of ammunition,
also about twenty-five thousand bales of cotton. —
W. T. Sherman, major-general."^ The march to
the sea was accomplished. The later stages were
no more difficult or dangerous than the beginning.
* Livermore, Numbers and Losses, 132.
^ W. T. Sherman, Memoirs, II., 231.
MARCH TO THE SEA
217
The steady rate of twelve or fifteen miles a day was
adhered to: no force blocked the path: no storms
occurred to mar the pleasure of the excursion.
Throughout a belt of country some sixty miles in
width, sixty-two thousand men had marched, lay-
ing waste as they went — a drastic process, which
brought the Confederacy to its knees as nothing else
could have done. The defences of Savannah were
easily overpowered, though Hardee was in com-
mand. That prudent general, however, escaped
capture, and with a small army made ready as he
could for still another fight.
CHAPTER XIII
PREPARATIONS FOR READJUSTMENT OF THE
STATES
(September, 1864-MARCH, 1865)
I^HE series of Federal successes beginning with
the victory of the Kearsarge over the Alabama ,
June 19, 1864, and followed up by the triumph in
Mobile Bay, the capture of Atlanta, the overthrow
of Early in the valley of Virginia, the repulse of
Hood, and the march through Georgia to the sea,
established the administration firmly. It was really
a piece of great good fortune for Lincoln and his
friends that the depression prevailing at the end of
August made it possible for Vallandigham to give
tone to the Chicago convention. For the war had
no sooner been declared a failure in the Democratic
resolutions than the declaration was proved absurd.
As victory followed victory till the year closed, the
absurdity deepened, until the party that had made
the declaration became almost a laughing-stock.
The mutterings and contrivings of the opposition,
though not discontinued, became impotent. Octo-
ber 19, 1864, occurred the St. Albans raid, an in-
cursion into northern Vermont of twenty or thirty
i864] READJUSTMENT OF STATES 219
southern sympathizers from Canada, during which
a village was badly frightened, but only trifling
injury inflicted: this was the most important of a
number of attempts to kindle a back-fire, which
were of no moment as things came out, but which,
had the North experienced the depression of mili-
tary defeats, would have been dangerous.*
As the fall elections proceeded, all went well for
the Union party. Maine and Vermont in Septem-
ber gave encouraging majorities: the October states
were not behind; and in the presidential election
in November came such a land-slide" as the coun-
try has seldom seen.^ McClellan carried but three
among the loyal states, New Jersey, Delaware, and
Kentucky, with 21 electoral votes; while Lincoln
carried twenty- two states with 212 votes. The
early withdrawal of Fremont from the canvass gave
to Lincoln most of the radical voters. The congres-
sional elections, for the House which would sit from
1865 to 1867, were overwhelmingly Republican;
while in his own party dissensions were quieted, the
logic of events thoroughly confuted the error of
Lincoln's opponents. He bore himself throughout
the canvass with great moderation, dignity, and
magnanimity. No point of his conduct is better
worth noting than that he discouraged attempts to
influence the votes of persons in government employ :
civil - service reform was then undreamed of: the
^ Headley, Confederate Operations in New York and Canada.
^ McPherson, Polit. Hist, of the Great Rebellion, 623.
^20 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
spoils system had full sway ; but the president main-
tained as he could the independent franchise of the
office-holdei.^
The thirty - eighth Congress assembled for its
second and last session December 5, 1864, and
received on the following day the annual message,
which gave main attention to matters connected
directly with the war. As to Maryland, which had
just abolished slavery, the president declared, "the
genius of rebellion will no longer claim her. Like
another foul spirit being driven out, it may seek to
tear her, but it will woo her no more." He earnestly
recommended the adoption of the thirteenth amend-
ment by the present Congress, for the large Repub-
lican majority in the next Congress would make
sure its ultimate passage.^
The receipts from taxation for the fiscal year
1863-1864 were: customs, $102,000,000, internal
revenue, $110,000,000, while $623,000,000 were de-
rived from loans. Of this immense total, the war
department alone absorbed $691,000,000. The pub-
lic debt, July i, stood at $1,740,690,489, which
another year of war might raise $500,000,000. Lin-
coln recommended that loans should be made
attractive by exemption from taxation and from
seizure for debt to a certain extent, so that the debt,
as much as possible, might be owed to the people.
Lincoln referred to the elections as showing the
* Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, IX., 363.
2 Lincoln, Works (ed. of 1894), II., 604.
i865] READJUSTMENT OF STATES 221
country was not approaching exhaustion "in the
most important branch of national resources — that
of hving men." In spite of the losses, the net in-
crease of voters in the North was 145,551 over i860.
He declared abandonment of armed resistance to
the national authority on the part of the insurgents
to be the only indispensable condition for ending
the war. As regards emancipation, he declared his
purpose to retract nothing he had said. "If the
people should by whatever mode or means make it
an executive duty to re-enslave such persons, an-
other and not I must be the instrument to perform
it. In stating a single condition of peace, I mean
simply to say, that the war will cease on the part
of the government whenever it shall have ceased on
the part of those who began it."
The pending thirteenth amendment, which had
already passed the Senate, and which Lincoln now
urgently pressed upon the House, came up January
6, 1865, on which day Ashley, who, it will be remem-
bered, had arranged for its reconsideration,^ took
pains to bring it forward, and made a forcible speech
in its favor. ^ As before, his chief service was in the
way of adroit management ; to make up the requi-
site two-thirds vote, a number of Democrats must
be won; and in reaching these, Ashley's industry and
shrewdness were conspicuous.^ A debate followed
^ See above, p. 124.
Cong. Globe, 38 Cong., 2 Sess., 138.
^Riddle, Recollections, 324.
222 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1862
in which a third of the House took part, the stand-
ard-bearer of the opposition being George H. Pendle-
ton, of Ohio, the recently defeated candidate for the
vice-presidency/ He again argued that "the power
to amend" did not imply "the power to revolu-
tionize." He was answered at length by Garfield,
and more briefly but effectively by Boutwell, while
the speeches of Scofield, of Pennsylvania, Kasson,
of Iowa, and Rollins, of Missouri, were noteworthy.
The vote was taken January 31, 1865, the galleries
of the House being crowded with a multitude favor-
able to the amendment. Eleven Democrats threw
their weight in favor, thus assuring the necessary
two-thirds majority — 119 to 56;^ the margin was
narrow, but it was enough. An outburst of excite-
ment and congratulation ensued in which states-
men and spectators took part. Ingersoll, of Illinois,
moved that "in honor of this immortal and sublime
event this House do now adjourn." The Senate
having already taken the necessary action, the
amendment went before the states, and on Decem-
ber 18, 1865, came the official announcement of its
ratification by three-fourths of the number, twenty-
seven out of thirty-five.
To recapitulate here the successive steps of the
process of emancipation, four different methods to
bring it about must be noticed.
(i) By act of Congress, April 16, 1862, slavery
* Blaine, Twenty Years, I., 537.
^Cong. Globe, 38 Cong., 2 Sess., 531.
1865] READJUSTMENT OF STATES 223
was abolished in the District of Columbia, and June
19 in the territories.^
(2) By the definite proclamation of the president,
January i, 1863, as a military measure, slavery was
abolished throughout the seceded states excepting
Tennessee and certain parts of Louisiana and Vir-
ginia.^
(3) By direct state action, Maryland adopted an
anti- slavery constitution October 10, 1864; Ten-
nessee, which the proclamation had not mentioned,
followed, February 22, 1865. Similar constitutions
were adopted by Arkansas, January 19, 1864; Louis-
iana, September, 1864; and Missouri, June 6, 1865.^
(4) By the thirteenth amendment, officially an-
nounced as ratified December 18, 1865, emancipa-
tion was extended to Kentucky and Delaware, be-
sides sanctioning what had gone before, and giving
freedom a uniform basis.
The treasury was still a heavy burden to Congress
and to the new secretary, Fessenden, who, while he
had all mental and moral qualifications for his posi-
tion, lacked health. During the few months that he
held office his service was great, though rather in
carrying out policies already entered upon than in
originating new devices. In his report of 1864 he
urged additional taxation, the people having shown
their willingness to bear it; some way for making
* U. S. Statutes at Large, XII., 376, 432.
^Lincoln, Works (ed. of 1894), II., 287.
^ McPherson, Polit. Hist, of the Great Rebellion, 332, 459, 600.
224 OUTCOME OP THE CIVIL WAR [1864
public lands available for revenue; and the estab-
lishment of a sinking-fund. He opposed foreign
loans, advocating the disposal of bonds to the Ameri-
can people, and maintaining that our credit abroad
had been strengthened by the fact that we cared for
the public debt at home — that we had "derived a
pecuniary advantage from self-reliance." As the
disposition to continue the war was unbroken, so
the means for continuing it were in no danger of
failing.* Fessenden's suggestions all met with a
good response : the internal revenue was made more
stringent, and the tariff was amended; while, March
3, 1865, a new bond issue of six hundred million dol-
lars was authorized.^
Though the war was plainly near its end, the con-
scription act was made more severe and searching ; ^
there was no neglect or relaxation. Now it was that
the national banking system was strengthened by
further enactment already referred to, imposing a
tax of ten per cent, upon the circulation of state
banks, to go into effect July i, 1866.^ This tax was
a practical prohibition of state bank-notes, and be-
fore the time fixed that form of circiilation had en-
tirely disappeared. The labors of the statesmen
who wrought at the capital were scarcely less ex-
hausting than those of the soldiers. John Sherman,
at the head of the Senate finance committee, de-
^ Blaine, Twenty Years, I., 543.
^ U. S. Statutes at Large, XIII., 468, 469.
* Dewey, Financial Hist, of U. 5., 328.
^Ihid., 487.
1865] READJUSTMENT OF STATES 225
clares that when the session closed he was quite
broken down ; ^ and it may well be believed that the
burden borne by his famous brother, then marching
through the Confederacy, was no more embarrassing
than that of the legislator.
The question of the reconstruction of the states,
left in confusion by the controversy over the Davis-
Wade bill,^ was revived in the fall of 1864 by the
claim of the "Vest-Pocket Government" to be con-
sidered Virginia. After the creation of West Vir-
ginia, Peirpoint and his friends removed to Alex-
andria, claiming as within their jurisdiction the
part of Virginia occupied by the Federals — namely,
the region about Washington, a county or two on
the eastern shore, and the cities of Norfolk and
Portsmouth.
Peirpoint made the most of his government, but
the result was not impressive. Though his senators
remained in their places in the Federal Congress,
the House doubted the validity of the election of
the one representative appearing; and Butler at
Norfolk treated Peirpoint cavalierly. Bates, attor-
ney-general, supported Peirpoint against Butler;
and the matter coming before Lincoln, he sustained
Bates. Thus reconstruction in Virginia received
the coimtenance of the administration; so in the
Southwest, where Lincoln, in November, 1864,
checked decisively Generals Hurlbut and Canby,
* John Sherman, Recollections, 297.
^ See above, p. 139 et seq.
VOL. XXI. — 15
2 26 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
officers not considerate of the reconstructed civil
government of Louisiana.^ When Congress assem-
bled, though the people upheld Lincoln with em-
phasis, yet Henry Winter Davis and his friends
nursed their wrath; and no long time intervened
before their plan for reconstruction came up anew.
December 15, 1864, the active Ashley, from the
special committee on the rebellious states, of which
Davis was head, introduced a new bill; like the
bill of the previous session, in spite of Lincoln's
public objection, it assumed for Congress the power
to regulate reconstruction; at the same time it con-
ceded recognition to the Louisiana government.
But the temper of the House had changed; the bill
did not find favor, and though Ashley m.odified it,
presenting it four or five times in different shapes,^
it was not made more acceptable. The debate was
earnest, Davis displaying his usual power; while
H. W. Dawes, of Massachusetts, chairman of the
committee on elections, was prominent among his
opponents. A majority of the House had come to
think with Lincoln that it was unwise to prescribe
any one plan; and February 21, 1865, the bill was
laid on the table by a vote of 91 to 64.^
In the Senate, February 18, 1865, Trumbull
moved for the recognition of the government of
Louisiana, hinting that should it take place, it
practically involved also that of Arkansas, where
* Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, IX., 436 et seq.
^ Ibid., 449. ^ Cong. Globe, 38 Cong., 2 Sess., 967 et seq.
i865] READJUSTMENT OF STATES 227
the situation was similar. Though a majority was
unquestionably in favor, five Republican senators
led by Charles Sumner, who was sustained by Wade
and Chandler, prevented its passage. The decision
was postponed "to to-morrow" — a to-morrow which
never came.* Thus ended the matter for the thirty-
eighth Congress: Lincoln was to make on the sub-
ject one more declaration, which will be considered
later.
Early in 1865 took place the last and most im-
portant attempt to bring about peace, before the
final collapse. Francis P. Blair, Sr., whose rela-
tions with Jefferson Davis had been intimate, al-
ways restless and full of schemes, believed himself
to be a medium to bring about an accommodation.
Without any authority from Lincoln, who, however,
gave him a safe-conduct, if he chose to go at his own
instance and risk, Blair made his way to the Rich-
mond outposts, and was admitted to an audience
with Davis. He conceived a scheme, according to
which, by uniting Federal and Confederate strength,
during an armistice, and giving a leading part to
Davis, the Monroe Doctrine was to be vindicated
and the French driven out of Mexico: the united
effort against foreign aggression it was hoped
might tend to reconcile North and South; and
there was a dream of dominion over Mexico and as
far as the Isthmus, when the invaders had been
expelled. Davis listened with patience, perhaps
^ Cong. Globe, 38 Cong., 2 Sess., loii.
228 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1865
with a certain sympathy, as Blair detailed his
scheme, agreeing to appoint a commission to repre-
sent the Confederacy in a conference with represent-
atives from Washington, with the idea of promot-
ing "peace between the two countries." When Blair
returned to Washington and laid the scheme before
Lincoln, the latter expressed himself as ready on
his part to promote as he could " peace between the
people of our common country."^
February 3, 1865, the "Hampton Conference"
took place on board the steamer River Queen, anch-
ored in the Roads, off Fortress Monroe. The com-
missioners appointed by Jefferson Davis were iVlex-
ander H. Stephens, vice-president of the Confederacy,
R. M. T. Hunter, senator and ex-secretary of state,
and John A. Campbell, assistant secretary of war
and a former justice of the supreme court of the
United States. Lincoln determined to meet the
envoys himself, and was accompanied only by
Seward. From the accounts of the participants we
know that the Richmond envoys were much occu-
pied by the Mexican project, in which Seward, too,
was interested; for it will be remembered that, four
years before, he had seen in a foreign war a panacea
for our dissensions.^ Stephens led up to this point
gradually, but Lincoln said at once that he had
given no sanction to Blair's project: he could con-
sent to no armistice, nor to any proposition not
* Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, X., 107.
2 Hosmer, Appeal to Arms {Am. Nation, XX.) » 23.
1865I READJUSTMENT OF STATES 229
involving a complete restoration of the Federal
authority. The conference in this direction not
promising well, the talk fell upon the passage by
Congress of the thirteenth amendment, of which the
Confederates now heard for the first time. Seward
suggested, perhaps not seriously, that if the seceded
states would resimie their places they might defeat
the ratification.^ Both he and Lincoln expressed
their readiness to compensate the South for the
manimiitted slaves. This was quite in accord with
what Lincoln had always professed : he believed the
North was as much to blame as the South for the
establishment of slavery — that an indemnity was
only just, and that the money could be better spent
in that way than in warfare. He promised for his
part to act with liberality in case of submission;
but again and again came back to the declaration
that no agreement could be entered into until arms
had been laid aside. When Himter suggested, as
a precedent for negotiations between parties in a
civil war, Charles I. and his parliament, Lincoln
turned that over to Seward, he himself not being
strong in history. " All that I distinctly remember
about the case of Charles I. is that he lost his head."
The conference lasted four hours and resulted in
nothing.^
A few days later the president prepared a re-
markable message, in which he recommended the
* Bancroft, Seward, II., 414.
^ Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, X., 118 et seq.
230 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1865
appropriation of four hundred million dollars, to
be paid to the South as the price of peace — the in-
demnity which he thought it was only just to offer
in return for manumission, and which the country
could well afford to pay if only the war might cease.
This message Lincoln withheld with reluctance after
it had received the imanimous disapproval of his
cabinet/
The second inauguration of Abraham Lincoln took
place March 4, 1865. In the concourse which gath-
ered in front of the east portico of the Capitol, a
notable element was the civic associations of negro
citizens, and the batallion of negro troops who
marched in the procession. The address was brief,
and marked by a solemn beauty which places it
among the great utterances of history. Rarely from
human lips has fallen so perfect an expression of
the sweetest and highest wisdom. "Fondly do we
hope — fervently do we pray that this mighty scourge
of war may speedily pass away. Yet if God wills
that it continue until all the wealth piled up by the
bondman's tw^o hundred and fifty years of unre-
warded toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of
blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another
drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand
years ago so still it must be said, ' The judgments of
the Lord are true and righteous altogether.'
''With malice towards none, with charity for all;
with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the
* Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, X., 133.
i865] READJUSTMENT OF STATES 231
right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; —
to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who
shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and
his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish
a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with
all nations." ^
Then came the oath, administered by Chief -Just ice
Chase: Abraham Lincoln, do solemnly swear
that I will faithfully execute the office of President
of the United States, and will, to the best of my
ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitu-
tion of the United States."
^ Lincoln, T^or^j (ed. of 1894), II., 657.
CHAPTER XIV
MILITARY SEVERITIES
(1864-1865)
WHAT disposition should be made of Sherman
and his army, whom we left resting in Savan-
nah after the agreeable experience of the march to
the sea, was for a time doubtful. Grant suggested
that all should be put on transports and conveyed
speedily to the lines before Petersburg and Rich-
mond/ To Sherman's gratification, however, it
was concluded that he should be allowed to finish
as he had begun, and march to Richmond through
the Carolinas.^ The army was in fine condition;
the troops had been only invigorated during their
un vexed and well-provided excursion. Whatever
they might now lack was made good from the ships ;
their spirits were high. The animals, too, were in
the best condition. All this was fortunate, for the
task to be undertaken thenceforth was difiicult: the
winter set in, the streams were at flood, the roads
were avenues of mud, the Confederates were gath-
ering. Johnston had been restored to command by
Lee (now commander-in-chief); and Hardee, at
* W. T. Sherman, Memoirs, II., 206. ^ Ibid., 238.
i864] MILITARY SEVERITIES 233
Charleston, was formidable. The Georgia militia, at
Honey Hill, had already defeated in a sharp battle,
November 30, a division sent out from Port Royal
to seize the railroads.^ The spirit of the South was
not broken.
With what temper the government and the gen-
eral were now animated, the following correspond-
ence shows. Halleck wrote Sherman, December 18:
"Should you capture Charleston, I hope that by
some accident the place may be destroyed; and if
a little salt should be sown upon its site, it may
prevent the growth of future crops of nullification
and secession."
To this Sherman replied, December 24: "I will
bear in mind your hint as to Charleston, and do not
think ' salt ' will be necessary. ... I attach more im-
portance to these deep incisions into the enemy's
cotmtry because this war differs from European
wars in this particular : we are not only fighting hos-
tile armies but a hostile people, and must make old
and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war,
as well as their organized armies. I know that this
recent movement of mine through Georgia has had
a wonderful efiEect in this respect. . . . The truth is,
the whole army is burning with an insatiable de-
sire to work vengeance upon South Carolina. I al-
most tremble for her, but feel she deserves all that
seems in store for her." ^
^ Cox, March to the Sea, Franklin and Nashville, 48.
^ W. T. Sherman, Memoirs, II., 223, 227.
234 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
The Federals set forth from Savannah in January,
1865, thus anticipating the Confederates, who had
not looked for a movement while the bad weather
prevailed. Through South Carolina there was little
opposition from man, but the sky and earth were hos-
tile. Rains were incessant, each brook a torrent,
the roads only passable when corduroyed. Follow-
ing as it could the water-sheds, where the streams
were small, and the lowland swamps could be
avoided, feinting on the one hand against Charles-
ton, on the other against Augusta, the army waded
on.^ The men did not allow themselves to want for
food; the foraging, indeed, became more relentless
and vindictive than in Georgia. February 17, Co-
lumbia, the capital of South Carolina, was occu-
pied, and forthwith burned.
Who burned Columbia is a question much in dis-
pute. The Confederates laid it to Sherman; and
there are Federal writers who hold his soldiers to
have been mainly responsible, and see in the occur-
rence the climax of his "vandalism." On the other
hand, Sherman himself strongly asserts his inno-
cence; the conflagration, he declares, resulted from
the burning in the streets, by the retiring Confed-
erates, of cotton which they desired to destroy;
and the soldiers helped the citizens to extinguish
the flames.^ General Slocum, however, believed
that fires were lighted by soldiers made drunk by
^War Records, Serial No. 98, pp. 1-1149 (Campaign in the
Carolinas). ^ W. T. Sherman, Memoirs, II., 286.
1865] MILITARY SEVERITIES 235
whiskey furnished by people of the town;^ White-
law Reid pronounces the burning of Columbia the
most monstrous barbarity of the barbarous march. ^
Cox, while admitting that exasperation against South
Carolina, and some demoralization in the Federal
ranks, had much to do with the destruction of
Columbia, yet maintains that the general's policy
was ''one of mildness to the individual citizen and
of destruction only to the public resources of the
country." ^ But in war-time how shall the line be
drawn between private wealth and the public re-
sources? Confederate writers, naturally, strongly
condemn Sherman.^
During Sherman's march from Savannah, im-
portant events were taking place in other fields. In
December, 1864, B. F. Butler, with an army and
fleet, appeared off the entrance to Cape Fear River.
After the explosion of a powder-boat, on the 13th,
in the water near Fort Fisher, which was quite harm-
less, Butler retired, thus closing his career as a sol-
dier;^ whereupon General Alfred H. Terry, with the
Tenth Corps and a fleet, made a new and entirely
successful attempt; Fort Fisher was captured Jan-
uary 15, 1865. With the fall of Charleston, which
Hardee evacuated, February 18, after Sherman had
severed all its connections and rendered it unten-
^ Battles and Leaders, IV., 686.
^ Reid, Ohio in the War, I., 475.
^ Cox, March to the Sea, 176.
* For example, see B. T. Johnson, /. E. Johnston, 151 et seq.
^Butler, Butler's Book, 774.
236 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1865
able, the last harbor was closed to the Confed-
eracy.
Meantime, the winter put no bar upon operations
in the West. Stoneman, with the Fourth Corps and
cavalry, penetrated the mountains from east Ten-
nessee, and seized the great Confederate depot at
Salisbury in western North Carolina. Wilson swept
southward, ravaging the country, and defeating
Forrest at Selma, Alabama. Schofield, too, with
the Twenty-third Corps, passing rapidly by a long
detour to the Chesapeake, thence sailed southward,
and, a few days after the fall of Fort Fisher, joined
Terry on the Cape Fear River.^ Taking command,
Schofield captured Wilmington, penetrating thence,
March 21, after some fighting at Kinston, to Golds-
boro, in the interior. Sherman now, after seizing
Cheraw and Fayetteville, important arsenals and
depots, was well on his way to Raleigh. His army
toiling on through incessant rains, was widely sepa-
rated on account of the necessity of procuring sup-
plies. Slocum and Howard were far apart, and the
columns trailed their attenuated length for many
miles.
Here Johnston saw his opportunity, and he now
showed, if he had never shown it before, that he could
be active and enterprising upon occasion as well as
conduct a retreat. While Hampton with his cav-
alry veiled his movements, Johnston suddenly threw
himself upon certain isolated divisions of the left
* Schofield, Forty-six Years in the Army, 345.
1865] MILITARY SEVERITIES 237
wing near Bentonville, March 19. While Cox de-
clares he had a large superiority/ Johnston makes
the usual Confederate claim that he was heavily out-
numbered.^ The careful Livermore makes the forces
engaged to have been nearly equal, on each side
about seventeen thousand.^ It was a resolute and
brilliant attack, repulsed only with heavy loss. The
battle over, Sherman and Schofield soon struck
hands, and Raleigh was occupied, xVpril 13, 1865.
Sherman's magnificent and epoch-making work
as a soldier being now accomplished, a little space
may weU be devoted to considering the criticisms
made upon this striking figure in the history of our
coimtry. Says John C. Ropes: "If Sherman pur-
posely destroyed or connived at the destruction of
property which was not needed for the supply of
his army or the enemy's army, he violated one of
the fimdamental canons of modern warfare. ... If
we are correct in attributing this position to Sher-
man, the authorities are against him, . . . and just
so far as he directed or permitted this he conducted
war on obsolete and barbarous principles." ^ And
Charles Francis Adams censures the lightness of
Rhodes 's condemnation of the "pronounced van-
dalism" of Sherman, who, with his colleague Sheri-
dan, advocated and carried out in warfare "the
* Cox, March to the Sea, Franklin and Nashville, 197.
2 Johnston, Narrative, 392.
^ Livermore, Numbers and Losses, 134.
* Ropes, in Atlantic Monthly, LXVIII., 202.
238 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
seventeenth century practices of Tilly." ^ General
Cox, always calm and sane, one of Sherman's best
officers, who, although himself not in the march
through Georgia and the Carolinas, knew the facts
minutely, and is probably the best historian of the
occurrence, may well be quoted here.
"The tendency of war to make men relapse into
barbarism becomes most evident when an army is
living in any degree upon the enemy's country. . . .
Most of the officers honestly tried to enforce the
rules; but in an army of many thousand men, a
small fraction of the whole would be enough to spoil
the best efforts of the rest. . . . Yet I believe that
nowhere in the world is respect for person and prop-
erty more sincere than among our own people. The
evils described are those which may be said to be
necessarily incident to the waging of war, and are
not indications of ferocity of nature or uncommon
lack of discipline." ^
Adams believes Sheridan to have been a graver
sinner than Sherman, both as to precept and ex-
ample ; and if these two are to be censured, the same
condemnation must be visited upon Grant, who
ordered the devastation of the valley of Virginia.
The Confederates are as open to criticism in this
respect as the Federals, so far as they had oppor-
tunity, and had no scruples over destroying peace-
ful commerce, the unarmed ships of private men.
^ Adams, Some Phases of the Civil War, 27 et seq.
2 Cox, Military Reminiscences, II., 233.
1865] MILITARY SEVERITIES 239
If Lee in his Pennsylvania campaign was scrupulous,
Morgan was not so in his Ohio raid, and Early did
not hesitate to burn Chamber sburg. In 1864, Con-
federates in Canada were scheming to lay waste the
northern border and apply Greek fire to the cities
of the Union.^ Stonewall Jackson, at the beginning,
was in favor of showing no quarter to captured men.^
Nor is a spirit of ruthlessness confined to the time
of the Civil War, or to America. While unpleasant
declarations by United States officers of the present
time can be cited, there are speeches of the German
emperor which befit only the cruel old centuries, the
temper of which we had believed obsolete.^
"War is hell," said Sherman, and so long as man-
kind can find no other way of settling their differ-
ences, a recrudescence of horrors is inevitable when-
ever it is waged. When war becomes close and
desperate, as it was between North and South, each
combatant, in the effort to maintain himself, grasps
methods likely to be effective, however cruel, rather
than lose his cause. The burning of peaceful mer-
chantmen and whalers was undoubtedly most effec-
I tive; the devastations supervised by Sherman and
; Sheridan were undoubtedly most effective. No
I real line can be drawn in war between public re-
1 sources and private wealth ; what its individual citi-
izens are and possess is the strength of a land, and
^ Headley, Confed. Operations in Canada and New York, 264.
jj ^Dabney, Jackson, 224.
I ^ Adams, Some Phases of the Civil War, 30.
I
240 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
the crushing must constantly become more ruthless,
if the conflict be protracted and uncertain. The
thorough-going soldier regards the short, sharp, un-
sparing method as in the end the humane method,
even though the woman and the babe become home-
less. It all belongs to the dreadful business, and
such things the world will continue to behold until
the curse of war shall cease.
No more striking example of what pitiless w^ar
may on occasion bring a humane man to do, and
no more striking example of the adamantine nerve
of the greatest of Union soldiers can be named, than
the conduct of Grant, in 1864, as regards the ex-
change of prisoners. What Andersonville was, all
the world knows — thirty-two thousand Union sol-
diers huddled within a stockade enclosing twenty-
six and one-half acres, though in the midst of for-
ests, without the shelter even of trees, against the
frost or the burning sun, with scanty and irregular
food supply, with a scanty and polluted supply of
water, in rags and filth, dragging on month after
month of hopeless life. The Confederates desired
to exchange them for an equivalent number of their
own prisoners in Union hands. The North urged,
with breaking hearts, that her sons might be set
free from such an abyss of suffering. It may well
be believed that the great captain's own heart was
oppressed, for he was far from being cruel. But
on April 17, 1864, refused to exchange prisoners;
and on August 18, at City Point, when things were
1 864] MILITARY SEVERITIES 241
at a most critical pass, he explained his refusal: "It
is hard on our men held in southern prisons not to
exchange them, but it is humanity to those left in
the ranks to fight our battles. Every man we hold,
when released on parole, or otherwise, becomes an
active soldier against us at once, either directly or
indirectly. If we commence a system of exchange
w^hich liberates all prisoners taken, w^e will have to
fight on until the whole South is exterminated. If
we hold those caught, they amount to no more than
dead men. At this particular time, to release all
rebel prisoners in the North would insure Sherman's
defeat, and would compromise our safety here."^
Rhodes, whose chapter on this topic is especially
painstaking and acctu^ate, finds this subject more
difficult to deal with than any other connected with
the Civil War.^ All other things, men once opposed
can discuss with charity and good-nature ; but as to
the treatmicnt of prisoners the soreness persists.
The northern man is not more convinced that there
were needless horrors in southern prisons than is the
southern man that there w^ere needless horrors in
northern prisons. While the former flushes at the
thought of Andersonville, Libby, and Salisbury,
the latter still nurses wrath over Fort Delaware,
Elmira, Johnson's Island, and Camp Douglas. The
accusations of inhumanity from the South are just
as earnest and circumstantial as those that come
* War Records, Serial No. 120, p. 607.
2 Rhodes, United States, V., 483.
VOL. XXI. — 16
242 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1863
from the North/ It is far beyond the scope of this
work to consider this matter at length. The litera-
ture is vast ; the second series of the War Records,
eight stout quartos, contain the official doctmients,
and much has been written besides.^
The best judgment, based on official records, in-
clines to the conclusion that, up to the end of the
year 1863, little happened in the treatment of prison-
ers. North or South, to arouse the anger or excite
the sharp criticism of reasonable men on the oppos-
ing sides. ^ Embarrassments, of course, there were,
such as the determination of the Washington gov-
ernment, at the beginning, not long adhered to, to
treat privateer smen as pirates and beyond the pale
of mercy; and the determination of the Richmond
government to refuse all rights to captured negro
soldiers and their white officers. There were accusa-
tions, too, of the abuse of paroles. But in the main,
each combatant recognized that he had little reason
to complain, and had things gone on in the same
way, the historian of the period would be spared
the writing of some sorrowful pages.
As to what happened after 1863, neither the
Washington nor Richmond authorities intended to
be cruel. On both sides it was ordered that the
same rations should be given to the prisoners as to
1 E. g., Southern Hist. Soc, Papers, 113 et seq.
2 See J. McElroy, Andersonvillc, a Story of Rebel Military
Prisons; J. V. Hadley, Seven Months in Prison; A. B. Isliam,
Prisoners and Military Prisons.
3 Rhodes, United States, V., 491.
i864] MILITARY SEVERITIES 243
the soldiers in the field; also that the hospitals for
the prisons should be the same as for the camps:
there was no thought of any harshness in treatment
beyond what might be necessary to hold large num-
bers of men always trying to escape. But in 1864
new elements came into the problem. Grant was at
the head, and was convinced that in the case of
the men captured at Vicksburg and Port Hudson,
there had been a violation of parole, the men being
returned at once into the ranks: exchanges must
cease until this had been explained and atoned for.
Meantime the prison at Andersonville was estab-
lished, intended for no large nimiber, but before it
was finished occupied by an overw^helming and un-
looked-for crowd, for whom, as regards all necessi-
ties, no provision was made.
The strait of the Confederacy at the moment was
desperate: it was pressed on all sides, while Grant
and Sherman, each with a hundred thousand men
and more, were advancing through their territory,
upon their eastern and w^estern citadels. The at-
tention of all w^as concentrated on the approaching
danger. Every man upon whom the Confederacy
could lay hands was needed at the front — every
pound of food w^as needed for the fighters. Means
of transit were at all times limited: then the rail-
roads far into the interior were wrecked by Federal
raiders, and locomotives and machinery destroyed,
while the blockade prevented their replacement.
There was no time to think of the prisons. The
244 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
troops that could be spared for prison-guards were
in number the very minimum, and in quahty the
poorest; the officers to command them were those
who could be spared from before the enemy, the
incapables therefore. These struggled often ineffi-
ciently against the difficulties of the situation which
always grew worse: money became worthless; for
all work only impressed and reluctant labor could
be had. New thousands of prisoners poured in as
the summer advanced, largely from before Rich-
mond— some part of them, it is said, being ''boimty-
jumpers," who preferred to surrender rather than
fight. Meantime the attention of the heads was
absorbed in the terrible battles; or if there was a
thought of the prisoners, the answer came that
"Grant refuses to exchange, and the responsibility
for their suffering lies with their own friends, and
not with their captors."
This being the situation, horrors acctmiulated.
The Confederacy, though so distracted, was not
insensible to the misery: the truth was sotinded
abroad by many, in particular in a report made to
the government by Colonel D. T. Chandler, which
kept back nothing.* Various schemes to help were
advocated: since Grant refused to exchange, many
favored a liberation of the more feeble prisoners,
and sending them north on parole. Howell Cobb,
who now as commander of the state troops of
Georgia, had a supervision of Andersonville, favored
* War Records, Serial No. 120, p. 546 (Chandler's Report).
i865] MILITARY SEVERITIES 245
the liberation of all such as would at the elections
cast their votes against Lincoln/ The men directly
in charge at the stockade, and who at the North
were believed to be especially responsible for the
enormities, were General John H. Winder and
Captain Henry Wirz. The latter was hanged after
the war, for his supposed crimes, and Winder, who
died in 1865, no doubt would also have been ex-
ecuted. Yet possibly they were more imfortunate
than criminal. They were inferior men set to cope
with fearful conditions. Winder urged the policy
of paroling and sending north; and Dick Taylor
relates a rather pathetic story of Wirz. Taylor, in
command of the department, passing by train near
Andersonville, late in 1864, was visited by Wirz,
who pictured vividly his embarrassments, the enor-
mous requirements, the utter lack of resources to
meet them, and begged his commander for help.*
The Confederacy was tottering to its destruction,
with Sherman at its heart, and Grant holding its
head in a vise.^ Nothing could be done. There
were at least twelve other prisons, but at Anderson-
ville the difficulty culminated. What can be said in
the way of explanation or palliation of Andersonville
can in general be more strongly urged for the rest.
As to alleged ill-treatment of southern men in
northern prisons, the charges cannot be ignored:
the frequent statement that the mortality among
^ War Records, Serial No. 120, p. 796.
^Taylor, Destruction and Reconstruction, 216.
246 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
southern prisoners at the North was three per cent,
greater than among northern prisoners at the South,
rests on no good evidence.^ Well-remembered testi-
mony, however, from army surgeons, goes to prove
that southerners in general showed in the war much
less power to endure novel conditions of life than
did northerners. The available statistics show that
while of southern men in northern prisons a little
over twelve per cent, died, of northern men in south-
ern prisons the per cent, was 15.5.^
Perhaps the mortality of Confederates ought to
have been much less, in view of the vast superiority
of northern resources, which removed all difhculties
as to the supply of food, medicines, shelter, and
clothing. The demands from the front, especially
in 1864, affected the northern prison-guards, who
were sometimes inefficient, with poor officers. Cases
of carelessness, drunkenness, and embezzlement can
be cited. While the heat of the South wore upon
northern men, the cold of the North wore upon
southern men: there was sometimes, with a zero
temperature, lack of blankets and fuel, so that
pneumonia swept off its victims as well as the
fevers of the South. In 1864 a spirit of retaliation
became rife. Rimiors of the Anderson ville situation
filled the ears of men, and sentiment was powerfully
affected. The prison ration, till now the same as
that for soldiers, was reduced twenty per cent, by
^Southern Hist. Soc, Papers, XL, 113.
2 Rhodes, United States, V., 508.
i864] MILITARY SEVERITIES 247
the Federal government, among the proscribed
articles being coffee, tea, and sugar; at the same
time the supply of comforts flowing in from outside
friends was cut off. It does not at all appear that
the reduction was so great as to aft'ect seriously the
health and strength of the prisoners;^ much less
were any brought near the starvation-point ; never-
theless, there was an experience of privation. It is
probable that sometimes at prison-posts the local
officials took a hand at retaliation, adding a weight
beyond what the government inflicted: the public
exasperation was great, and an excess of zeal in
this direction likely to be approved or leniently
judged. In spite of all, the best testimony favors
the idea that a good average of vigor was main-
tained in the northern prisons ; and Grant certainly
believed that an exchange, while it brought back
men emaciated and powerless, would turn loose
upon Sherman and upon himself many thousands
of strong and well-fed men.
The investigator who perhaps beyond all others
has dived nearest to the bottom of this shocking pit
simis up as follows: "All things considered, the
statistics show no reason why the North should
reproach the South. If we add to one side of the
account the refusal to exchange the prisoners and
the greater resources, and to the other the stress
of the Confederacy, the balance struck will not be
far from even. Certain it is that no deliberate
^ Rhodes, United States, V., 505.
248 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
intention existed either in Richmond or Washing-
ton to inflict suffering on captives more than inev-
itably accompanied the confinement. Rather than
to charge either section with inhumanity, it were
truer to lay the burden on war. On war, there-
fore, let the burden rest. It belongs to the hor-
rors inseparable from a close and desperate war;
and such things must be expected to recur again
and again until war shall be no more.
^ Rhodes, United States, V., 508.
CHAPTER XV
SPIRIT OF THE NORTH
(1864-1865)
A RENOWNED historian of the Civil War, after
describing the colossal labors of the men in au-
thority as it progressed, declares that one reading with
care the official records finds it hard to understand
how Lincoln and Stanton, in particular, were not
crushed by the weight of responsibility, which came
to its severest betw^een May arid September, 1864/
The Stanton of the records he finds in marked con-
trast with the Stanton of tradition — a patient, tact-
ful, forbearing, as well as resolute and indefatigable
character, not the violent and harshly arbitrary
man whom many have portrayed.^ In these months
the burden told heavily upon Lincoln: his boister-
ous laugh, says his private secretary, was less fre-
quent; the eye grew veiled through brooding over
momentous subjects; he became reserved, and aged
with great rapidity. There is a solemn contrast
between two life-masks, one made in i860, the other
in the spring of 1865; the earlier face is that of a
^Rhodes, United States, V., 237.
2 Gorham, Stanton, II., pt. viii.
250 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
strong, healthy man, full of life and energy. The
other is "so sad and peaceful in its definite repose
that St. Gaudens insisted at first it was a death-
mask. The lines are set as if the living face, like
the copy, had been in bronze; the nose is thin and
lengthened by the emaciation of the cheeks; the
mouth is fixed like that of an archaic statue — a look
as of one on whom sorrow and care had done their
worst without victory is on all the features: the
whole expression is of unspeakable sadness and all-
suffering strength." ^
As the year 1864 closed, for the president there
was great relief. The victories made final success
certain; the election, w^hile continuing his power,
assured him that he possessed overwhelmingly the
confidence of the country. His immediate environ-
ment had also become more congenial : he had sub-
jected the vehement Stanton; he had no longer to
bear the ill-nature of Chase; in the place of Bates
there stood a warm personal friend. Speed. Indeed,
but two of the secretaries of 1861, Seward and
Welles, remained in the cabinet. In particular, Lin-
coln's relations with the secretary of state were
close and harmonious. If at first Seward depreciated
the president, that disposition passed after a few
months of intimacy, and he worked on loyally in his
subordinate place. Any chagrin he may have felt
* John Hay, in Century, XIII., 37 (November, 1890). The
two masks lie together in the Lincoln case at the National
Museum in Washington.
i864] SPIRIT OF THE NORTH
at not attaining the highest honor, he suppressed;
and there is Httle evidence that he cherished any
further ambition. As to foreign affairs, he de-
clared in these days with truth that ' ' things were
going finely." Seward might honestly feel that his
own courage and force had helped powerfully to the
general success. It is pleasant to read his hearty
appreciation of his great chief. In a speech after
the election he said : ' ' Henceforth all men will come
to see him as you and I have seen him — a true,
loyal, patient, patriotic, and benevolent man. . . .
Detraction will cease and Abraham Lincoln will
take his place with Washington, Jefferson, Adams,
and Franklin, among the benefactors of the country
and of the human race." ^
In truth, in Europe things w^ere now going well
for the Union. As to the great powers, Russia was
always friendly: France, in spite of the unfriendli-
ness of Napoleon III., had not broken with us. In
Mexico, Maximilian, after May, 1864, was personally
engaged in establishing his dynasty, and seemed for
the moment successful ; but already there were signs,
both North and South, that the Monroe Doctrine
was not forgotten, and would some day be vindi-
cated.
By the spring of 1865 all danger of European
interference in our quarrel ceased. The Confederate
agents were in the background, discouraged,^ while
^ Seward, Works, V., 514.
2 Callahan, Diplomatic Relations of the Confed., chap. viii.
252 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1861
Charles Francis Adams enjoyed a consideration such
as no previous American minister had reached. A
different tone was heard in the utterances of states-
men and men of letters. The voices of John Bright,
W. E. Forster, and Richard Cobden more and more
prevailed. At an earlier period Grote had been
supercilious, Dickens unsympathetic, Carlyle roughly
denunciatory, E. A. Freeman and Gladstone proph-
ets of our disruption who were not saddened by what
they foretold. But there were now wiser men, none
more so than Sir Charles Lyell, the geologist, always
a friend to the Union, who showed, with candid
recognition of the merit of the vanquished, his
strong sympathy with the victors. The best Eng-
lish opinion is expressed in one of his letters, March
12, 1865, in which he declares that the Confederates
have certainly shown the power of an aristocracy to
command and direct the energies of the millions;
' ' Englishmen may feel proud of the prowess of the
southern army, in which there was not that large
mixture of Celtic and German blood found on the
Northern side." He expressed confidence in the
rapidity with which the wounds would be healed,
and believed that the discipline would bring about
in the people of the United States habits of subordi-
nation to central authority, which they needed: he
expected the large national debt to strengthen the
Federal power, which formerly could not control the
states; had the Union been dismembered, there
v/ould have been endless wars, more activity than
1865] SPIRIT OF THE NORTH 253
ever in breeding slaves in America, a renewal of the
African slave-trade, and a retarding of the future
course of civilization. The result, therefore, Lyell
deemed worth all the dreadful loss of blood and
treasure. As to the internal condition of the states,
he felt sure of their rapid and successful develop-
ment. ''Whatever it may be for the rich, I cer-
tainly think that for the millions it is the happiest
country in the world." ^
When the spring of 1865 opened, although a heavy
shadow of death darkened almost every household,
and a public debt of three billions gave rise to
apprehension, the North was cheerful and buoyant.
For the North was not only victorious, but prosper-
ous : though her ocean carrying- trade was nearly de-
stroyed through events which have been described,
there was a heavy export and import business
despite the high tariff. Legitimate trade with the
South was resumed, and intercommerce was ex-
traordinarily active. While there was no large in-
crease of railroads during the war period, in 1865
38,078 miles existed in the North, almost all in good
order and fully employed.^ Symptoms of the spirit
of enterprise in railroad building were an act of
1862 for the construction of the Union Pacific and
Central Pacific railroads; and consolidations were
beginning in the eastern lines. As regards appli-
ances, the air-brake, vestibuled trains, dining-cars,
* Letter to T. S. Spedding, Mrs. Lyell, Sir C. Lyell, II., 397.
^Am. Annual Cyclop., 1865, p. 742.
254 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1861
and palatial compartment-cars were undreamed of;
high speed could be maintained only at great risk;
roads were commonly single-tracked, and the strap-
rail had not entirely disappeared. But the railroad
stood fully developed as a powerful instrumentality,
already superseding the canal, the wonder of the
preceding generation, and promoting transit and
traffic to an extent never before known. While the
land was thus crossed and recrossed, the internal
waters, the Great Lakes, and the navigable streams
abounded in sailing and steam craft.
The requirements of the time caused these rapidly
developing facilities to be taxed to their utmost.
The condition of the farmers in the war period from
the first was good. In 1861 the crops were heavy,
with a strong European demand.^ Though the ex-
ports of food stuffs dropped off, the vast requirements
of the war immediately strengthened the market:
there was quick and good sale for every crop and
animal which the farmer could produce. Manufact-
ures were no less stimulated : had ships been plenty
and Europe clamorous, nothing could have been
spared for export, for forge and loom were quite
absorbed in satisfying the home needs „ The laborer
fared worse than the farmer and manufacturer.
While wages rose during the war, till in 1865 they
stood in the ratio of 183 as compared with 100 in
1 861: prices rose far more, being 217 at the end as
compared with 100 at the beginning, a law working
^ Schouler, United States, VI., 327.
i86s] SPIRIT OF THE NORTH 255
here which economists have noted. ^ House-rents,
too, though advancing, kept no pace with the price
of food and clothes.
The natural resources of the country were ex-
ploited as never before. The northwestern forests
fell quite too rapidly; petroleum, made available in
1859, underwent an extraordinary development in
the sixties. The gold discoveries of 1849 in Cali-
fornia were followed by finds of the same metal in
Colorado in 1858 and in Montana in 1861. Mean-
time, in 1859, silver was foimd in Nevada; in the
same period became known the stores of copper and
iron in the region south of Lake Superior. The
country was not so busy in the camp as to be un-
able to make prize of this newly revealed wealth.
In the stimulation of the processes of life, a quick
utilizing took place of inventions lately wrought
out, or now for the first time annoimced. McCor-
mick's reaper of 1834, Elias Howe's sewing-machine
of 1846, Goodyear's vulcanized rubber of 1839, the
daguerreotype of 1839, the Hoe rotary press of 1847,
the electric telegraph of 1835 — all these were im-
proved and made widely available, as could hardly
have been the case among quieter conditions ; while
in devising and perfecting breech-loaders, repea ting-
arms, and rifled bores, ingenious men were very
active. In 1841, at the Massachusetts General
Hospital, ether had first been used as an anesthetic
by Morton; what beneficent possibilities were in-
* Taussig, in Yale Review, II., 244 (November, 1895).
256 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1861
volved in this discoveiy became fully evident in
the field-hospitals of both armies.
Religion grew more earnest in these years. The
Protestant denominations, large and small, though
divided in the political dispute, lost no vigor. The
zeal of the ministers and congregations grew fervent.
The men recruited the armies and made sacrifices
at home; while the women, using such agencies as
the Sanitary and Christian Commissions, gave prac-
tical expression to their devotedness. The Catholics
were not behind, sending out a multitude of our best
soldiers and sailors, while patriotically active at
home. Religious activity pervaded, too, the camps ;
each regiment had its chaplain, usually a worthy
man, whose ministrations were earnest and met a
response sincere and wide-spread.
As to education, in the North the common school
was universal, though sometimes lacking appliances
and skilled teachers.^ In the country districts it
was often open only for short terms; and the
teachers — farmers' sons or daughters with small
training — were not the best. But things were im-
proving. Horace Mann died in 1859, a self-sacri-
ficing enthusiast whose writings and labors were
having a marked effect. Normal schools, well
established in New England, and fast making their
way farther west, were fixing new standards of
instruction and management, and effort was made
^ Mayo, History of Common Schools (U. S. Bureau of Education,
in preparation).
i862] SPIRIT OF THE NORTH
257
to profit by the experience of other lands. In the
cities were high schools, sometimes open to girls,
who, however, usually found a chance for nothing
but superficial training. For higher education, de-
nominational colleges abounded, rarely largely at-
tended, usually struggling with poverty, and often
esteeming orthodoxy of belief to be more important
than sound and broad learning. Of universities only
Harvard and Yale had the four faculties of divinity,
law, medicine, and science, in addition to the aca-
demic course; and neither had more than five hun-
dred and fifty students.*
Nevertheless, a new spirit was abroad ; the elective
system was making its way; endowments were be-
coming more liberal; and a beginning had been
made of the system of state universities which at
the present time crown so impressively our public
educational system. Among these new institutions
the University of Michigan had an honorable pre-
eminence. Since their support came from public
funds, it was manifestly unfair that the advantages
offered, too costly to be duplicated, should be en-
joyed by only half the youth. Hence the co-educa-
tion of the sexes, which had been successfully tried
in several places, notably at Oberlin, Ohio, was
generally adopted among state universities, that of
Iowa leading the way. In 1862 Congress made
^ Schouler, United States, VI., 336; for earlier conditions of
education, see Hart, Slavery and Abolition {Am. Nation, XVI.).
chap. ii.
VOL. XXI.— 17
258 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1862
possible the establishment in each state of a college
of agriculture and the mechanic arts: these, com-
bined as they usually were with the state universi-
ties, imparted strength and made certain for all
who desired it an education thoroughly practical.
In the pressure of the war the higher institutions
were much affected. At the West it sometimes hap-
pened that they were closed, the students, led by
their teachers, departing in companies to the front ;^
where they remained open the attendance fell off,
the spirited young men finding study difficult in
the prevailing martial excitement. J, W. Sill, a brave
young general killed at Murfreesboro, J, J. Reynolds,
a good commander of a division, J. L. Chamberlain,
J. A. Garfield, J. M. Schofield, and many more offi-
cers of distinction, were by profession teachers.
At the end of the war the impression was general
that extravagance and corruption prevailed to an
extraordinary extent; but a survey from this dis-
tance may give assurance that the evils were not
excessive or inexplicable. Many became suddenly
rich, for the newly opened mines, petroleum fields,
the vast government contracts, gold gambling, the
chances for speculation afforded by fluctuating
prices, gave unusual opportunity to the adroit and
rapacious. The money made easily was often spent
unwisely. Lavishness was manifest in houses, equi-
pages, and apparel, of women no less than men. But
conscience was active, and societies were formed for
* Cox, Military Reminiscences, I., 33.
1865] SPIRIT OF THE NORTH 259
the discouragement of luxury, the spirit prevailing
finding expression in Julia Ward Howe's
"Weave no more silks, ye Lyons looms,
To deck our girls for gay delights!
The crimson flower of battle blooms,
The solemn marches fill the nights.
" Weave but the flag whose bars to-day
Drooped heavy o'er our early dead,
And homely garments, coarse and gray,
For orphans that must earn their bread!" *
In the transactions of the government involving
enormous amounts some corruption was inevitable,
but it was resisted manfully, the fighters often
imagining a depth and extent of depravity which
did not exist. A congressional committee in 1863,
of which Senator James W. Grimes, of Iowa, was
chairman, made an appalling report as to waste and
peculation in the management of the army and
navy;^ and Roscoe Conkling, of New York, in a
speech of April 24, 1866, fiercely criticised the pro-
vost-marshal-general, J. B. Fry. When the statistics
were prepared and studied, the charges of Grimes
proved overdrawn. In the vast business of the
department of the paymaster-general, B. W. Bryce,
i it was found that from July i, 1861, to October 31,
1 1865, $1,029,239,000 had been disbursed — the steals
j . amounting to less than half a million, the expense
* Julia Ward Howe, From Sunset Ridge, 5.
2 Salter, Grimes, 229 et seq.
i
26o OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1861
of disbursement to $6,429,600, the aggregate being
less than seven-tenths of one per cent, of the amount
disbursed.^ In the department of the quartermas-
ter-general, Montgomery C. Meigs, the amoimt ap-
propriated was about $1 ,200,000,000, and the showing
was equally good, the business being in fact a model
of efficient administration.^ As to the department
of the provost - marshal - general, Fry replied con-
vincingly to his accuser. In the coimtry at large
the bounty and substitute brokers, who became
numerous towards the end of the war, were generally
bad men, and Fry had favored their suppression.
Fry's vindication may be regarded as conclusive.^
It is enough to confute the charge that wholesale
corruption prevailed in the management of these
tremendous responsibilities to recall the names of
the men who stood as heads: Lincoln, Stanton,
Chase, Fessenden, Welles, and his assistant, G. V.
Fox, Grant, Meigs, Ingalls, Fry — the coimtry has
never had in great positions men of higher ability
and integrity. That some trace of carelessness and
imfaithfulness should occur in the conduct of such
affairs was inevitable in view of hixman limitations,
but the need for apology is small indeed in present-
ing the story of these mighty labors.
Side by side with these men in official station may
properly be mentioned citizens in private station,
^ War Records, Serial No. 126, p. 204.
^Ibid., p. 254.
' J. B. Fry, Conkling and Blaine-Fry Controversy in 1866,
SPIRIT OF THE NORTH
261
who without pay rendered indispensable services —
men like J. M. Forbes^ and Amos A. Lawrence, of
Boston, who from pure patriotism were government
agents, or became boimty-brokers in the hope of
redeeming a work thought necessary but so often
made discreditable, and scattered broadcast patriotic
literature; Henry Whitney Bellows and Frederick
Law Olmstead, of New York, unpaid heads and
organizers of the Sanitary Commission ; and James
E. Yeatman, of St. Louis, well portrayed by Winston
Churchill, in The Crisis, as "Mr. Brinsmade."
The years of the Civil War fell well within the
golden period of American literature, which reflects
vividly the wrath, the anxieties, the sorrow, and
the exultation of the time. In American letters the
himiorist is never absent, and the newspapers of
the war - time sparkled with witty effusions that,
rough though they sometimes were, demolished evils
more effectively than attacks sober and labored.
''Artemus Ward" (Charles F. Browne), who was
willing to sacrifice on the altar of his cotmtry all
his wife's male relatives, would deserve notice if for
no other reason than that he was a source of much
refreshment to Lincoln. It is a strange bracketing,
but the "High-handed Outrage in Utiky" will go
down the ages with the Emancipation Proclamation.^
The president took great delight also in the deliver-
ances of ''Petroleum V. Nasby" (D. R. Locke), as
* Mrs. Hughes, John Murray Forbes, chaps, viii.-xviii.
2 Hosmer, Appeal to Arms {Am. Nation, XX.), 215.
262 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1861
did also James Russell Lowell, who declared that
*'Hosea Biglow" might be spared from the field
since a satirist of such vigor had entered it. The
letters from the " Confedrit X Rodes" told powerful-
ly against the Copperheadism of the West. Not far
behind these was Robert H. Newell, "Orpheus C,
Kerr" (Office Seeker), who, as the name suggests,
found other political abuses than disloyalty, and
sometimes hit out in other fields than politics. An
effort being made to obtain a new national hymn,
''Orpheus C. Kerr " published "The Rejected Nation-
al Hymns," the alleged contributions to that end of
our better-known poets. His parody of transcenden-
tal phraseology was thought amusing forty years ago.
FROM R— LPH W— LDO EM— R— N
"Source immaterial of material naught, —
Focus of light infinitesimal,
Sum of all things by sleepless Nature wrought,
Of which the normal man is decimal, —
Refract, with prism immortal, from thy stars
To the stars blent, incipient, in our flag,
The beam translucent, neutrifying death, —
And raise to immortality the rag!"
Often brilliant and genuinely poetic, also, were the
poems of John G. Saxe, a Democrat.
In a different class were J. G. Holland, Ba^^ard
Taylor, and Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, strong and
loyal workers for the Union and for freedom, al-
though the latter certainly had rendered her most
memorable service in the preliminary years. Of the
i865] SPIRIT OF THE NORTH
great pulpit and platform orators, Henry Ward
Beecher gave much help in England as well as at
home; while Thomas Starr King, according to the
belief of some, saved California to the Union.
Robert CoUyer in Chicago, Phillips Brooks in
Philadelphia, E. H. Chapin in New York, were
constant in their zeal. The eloquence of Wendell
Phillips, on the other hand, tended rather to embar-
rass than assist. William Lloyd Garrison felt that
with the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation
his work was accomplished, and retired from the fore-
ground. The utterance of these days which espe-
cially possesses the hearts of men is the address at
Gettysburg, November 19, 1863, of Abraham Lincoln.
A few ballads and lyrics took deep hold of the
people, their lines becoming household words. Such
were the "Fight in Mobile Bay," of H. H. Brownell,
Sheridan's Ride," by T. Buchanan Read, and
Julia Ward Howe's " Battle Hymn of the Republic."
Of fiction there was nothing more notevv^orthy than
Edward Everett Hale's Man Without a Country,
which appeared in the Atlantic Monthly of Decem-
ber, 1863. This weird and touching story, wellnigh
perfect as an example of literary art, written for the
temporary purpose of affecting sentiment at the
time when Vallandigham w^as a candidate fof gov-
ernor of Ohio, deepened sensibly northern patriotism
in general, and ever since has been an inspiring
object-lesson for Americans.
As to our great writers, scientists, and intellectual
264 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1861
leaders, most of whom were in the fulness of strength
in the war period, some specimens of their declarations
may well close this chapter. Nathaniel Hawthorne,
perhaps the chief of all, died in 1864, apparently not
much concerned as to the success or failure of the
government. While consul at Liverpool, some years
before the war, he wrote to his friend, Horatio Bridge :
"At present we have no Country. . . . The States are
too various and too extended to form really one
country. New England is really quite as large a
lump of earth as my heart can take in. Don't let
Frank Pierce see the above or he would turn me
out of ofhce, late in the day as it is. I have no
kindred with or leaning towards the abolitionists."'*
He was touched by the uprising in 1861, but only
for a moment. February 14, 1862, he writes:
"Frank Pierce came here and spent a night. . . .
He is bigoted to the Union, and sees nothing but
ruin without it ; whereas I (if we can only put the
boundary far enough south) should not much regret
an ultimate separation." ^
In this indifference, Hawthorne stood alone among
his compeers. The poets were all fervently loyal.
The uncombative nature of Longfellow withheld him
from fiery expressions, but he watched anxiously the
alternations of the struggle, now depressed, now re-
joicing— with an earnest recognition of the nobility
of such things as Lincoln's Gettysburg address.^
* Woodberry, Hawthorne, 281. Ibid., 2^4.
^S. Longfellow, H. W. Longfellow, II,, 395.
1865] SPIRIT OF THE NORTH 265
He was a close friend of Charles Sumner, who
always sought Longfellow when he could be absent
from the Senate ; to give comfort to that strenuous
champion was good service, had Longfellow done
nothing more. Holmes, both in verse and prose
was always spirited and outspoken, in his lighter
vein hitting the enemy and the backward patriot
at home with sharp ridicule, but most impressive
perhaps in the hymns which he wrote in times of
special stress. Whittier was strong, aggressive,
upon occasion denunciatory, emancipation natu-
rally kindling his spirit; "Barbara Frietchie" is a
chivalrous acknowledgment of an opponent's virtue.
Bryant, with lyre for the most part laid aside, some-
times overimpatient at the slow progress of freedom,
nevertheless made the New York Evening Post a
source of inspiration.
John Lothrop Motley, minister at Vienna, made a
good forecast of events when he said, January 27,
1864: "I have settled down into a comfortable
faith that this current year is to be the last of
military operations on a large scale. The future will
be more really prosperous than the past has ever
been; for the volcano above which we have been
living in a fool's paradise of forty years, dancing
and singing and imagining ourselves going ahead,
will have done its worst, and spent itself, I trust,
forever." ^
Emerson, just after the second election of Lin-
* To his mother, John Lothrop Motley, Correspondence, III., 3.
266 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1861
coin, congratulated his countrymen, "that a great
portion of mankind dwelling in the United States
have given their decision in unmistakable terms,
that a nation cannot be trifled with, but involves
interests so dear and so vast that its unity shall be
held by force against the forcible attempt to break
it. What gives commanding weight to this decision
is, that it has been made by the people sobered by
the calamity of the war. They protest in arms
against the levity of any small or any numerous
minority of citizens or States, to proceed by stealth
or by violence to dispart a country. ' ' *
Agassiz pushed in the darkest days of the war, in
1863, the foundation of a National Academy of
Sciences and his own Museum of Comparative
Zoology, alleging "that the moment of political
danger may be that in which the firm foundations
for the intellectual strength of a country may be
laid." In proof he cited the fotmding, immediately
after the prostration of Prussia, in 1806, of the
University of Berlin, by the advice of Fichte, the
philosopher, "which has made Berlin the intel-
lectual centre of Germany." ^ But while thus de-
voted to science, Agassiz was not indifferent to the
welfare of his adopted country. He wrote to an
English friend, August 30, 1862 : "I feel so thankful
for your words of sympathy. It has been agonizing
week after week to receive the English papers and
* Cabot, R. W. Emerson, II., 610.
2 Mrs. Agassiz, Louis Agassiz, 510.
1865] SPIRIT OF THE NORTH 267
to see there the noble devotion of the men of the
North to their country and its Government, branded
as the service of mercenaries. Your warm sympathy
I needed the more, as it is almost the first friendly
word I have received from England, and I began
to question the humanity of your civilization." ^
Lowell was especially fervent and indefatigable in
his patriotism. He wrote for the Atlantic Monthly
the second series of the Biglow Papers, in which his
pathos, humor, and invective were at their best, and
applied marvellously to the support of the cause he
loved. At the end of 1864 he greatly mourned the
death of three noble nephews killed in battle.
" Rat-tat-tat -tattle through the street
I hear the drummers makin' riot,
An' I set thinkin' of the feet
That follered once and now are quiet. . . .
'Tain't right to hev the young go fust
All throbbin' full o' gifts and graces,
Leavin' life's paupers, dry as dust,
To try an' make b'lieve fill their places.
** My eyes cloud up for rain; my mouth
Will take to twitchin' roun' the comers:
I pity mothers, tu, down South,
For all they sot among the scomers.
I'd sooner take my chance to stan'
I At Jedgment where your meanest slave is,
I Than at God's bar hoi' up a han'
Ez drippin' red ez yourn, Jeff Davis!" '
^ Mrs. Agassiz, Louis Agassiz, 577.
"^Biglow Papers, second series, No. 10.
268 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1864
With Charles EHot Norton, Lowell undertook the
editorship of the North American Review, infusing
into that long-established and respected publication
a new life and loyalty. ''Everything looks well,"
he writes to Motley, December 28, 1864. ''I think
our last election fairly legitimizes democracy for the
first time. ... It was really a nobler thing than you
can readily conceive so far away, for the opposition
had appealed to every base element in human nature,
and cunningly appealed too." ^
* John Lothrop Motley, Correspondence, III., 69.
CHAPTER XVI
SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH
(1864-1865)
TAYLOR, one of our best authorities, declares
that the generals at the head of the south-
ern armies resigned all hope of success ''after
the campaign of 1864 had fully opened. . . . The
commanders in the field whose work and position
enabled them to estimate the situation, fought
simply to afford statesmanship an opportunity to
mitigate the sorrows of inevitable defeat." * A Con-
federate soldier of lower rank, George Cary Eggle-
ston, asserts, too, ''we all knew from the beginning of
1864 that the war was hopeless." ^ Though that
may have been the opinion of the army, they did
not confess it to themselves, but, as we have seen,
faced with great resolution the forces of the Union.
The civil officials, too, made no sign of want of confi-
dence in a good issue, and the tone of the Richmond
press was bold: it gravely discussed in the fall of
1864 how to treat the discomfited Yankees when
the war is over.
* Taylor, Destruction and Reconstruction, 197.
' Eggleston, A ReheVs Recollections, 235.
270 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1861
No man in the Confederacy faced the situation
with more courage than Jefferson Davis, and when
in 1865 many whose hearts till then had been stout
gave up hope, he worked on with unabated confi-
dence and zeal. If the labors of Lincoln were great,
those of Davis were no less arduous ; but now while
Lincoln was on the point of final victory^ and the
resources and confidence of a great people were
poured out to him as the recognized chief agent in
bringing about success, the cause which Davis up-
held was failing fast, and condemnation more often
than praise w^as visited upon him.
While what the Confederate soldiers did in the
field was as a rule well done, the military adminis-
tration and commissariat were very defective.
Since the advent of Moltke, military writers have
had much to say about the importance to a fighting
nation of a proper general staff ;^ such a body the
southern army certainly had not — a want which
was offset by a similar lack in the northern army.
It must be admitted that Davis was a poor judge
of men: he looked with disfavor upon officers of
the merit of Beauregard and Joe Johnston, while
he esteemed Braxton Bragg, adopting him as his
adviser when Bragg stood discredited with all
others. It must also be laid upon him that Colonel
L. B. Northrop was retained as commissary-general.
It is a Napoleonic maxim that an army moves upon
^ Henderson, Science of War, 69, 401; C. F. Adams, Hist. Soc.
of Mass., Proceedings, series 2, xx., 159.
SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH
271
its belly; that it shall be fed is vital, but according
to much testimony from southern men the manage-
ment of the commissariat was execrable. The re-
sources, so scanty as compared with those of the
Union, were clumsily and wastefuUy handled, and
red-tape strangled efficiency to a disastrous extent.
Eggleston portra^ys in many pages the resulting
hardships to the soldiers. Stationed in South Caro-
lina, the force of which his battery was a part was
in the midst of rice -fields, furnishing excellent
food. It had been determined, however, to feed
the army on bacon and flour, which must be brought
hundreds of miles; the supply failing through bad-
ness of transportation, there w^as no thought of
having recourse to rice, but the troops were put on
short rations, being thus made to hunger in the
midst of plenty.^
In the first Bull Run campaign red-tape and bad
judgment neglected to use the meat and grain of
the valley of Virginia, close at hand, accessible and
likely to fall soon into the hands of the enemy, but
depended rather upon stores brought with cost and
inconvenience from Richmond. So it was at the
beginning; and far towards the end of the war,
January 5, 1864, we find Lee writing to Northrop a
letter in which his dissatisfaction with the commis-
sariat is very apparent: no beef had been issued to
the cavalry corps for eighteen months, and the
suggestions made by the commissary for bettering
* Eggleston, A Rebel's Recollections, 204.
2 72 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1861
matters were disapproved.^ It is, indeed, hard to
see why Lee did not interfere to remedy evils which
crippled him seriousty ; but the inefficiency went on.
In the department, too, of the provost- marshal -
general, the trouble was as great. The system of
guards, passports, and permits was in a high degree
annoying to soldiers not only on furlough but on
duty, giving rise to often-expressed wishes that Lee
would take things into his own hands. ^
The executive departments in general had many
critics. That there was unwisdom in the treasury
has been made plain :^ the postmaster-general could
not regulate the mails; the secretaries of war and
the navy were targets for abuse. Much of the dis-
content was no doubt unreasonable, but from begin-
ning to end Benjamin seems to have been the only
cabinet officer who made his influence powerfully felt.
The ability of the country, in fact, was in the
field, and men could not remain in civil positions,
even the highest, without loss of reputation. An
able-bodied man away from the front, whether a
clerk or a congressman, was liable to unpleasant
reminders that he might be in a better place; and
in this state of public opinion it came about that
men inferior in energy and talent made up the mass
in the legislatures and departments. Since the de-
bates of the Confederate congress have been only
^ Long, R. E. Lee, 637.
^Eggleston, A Rebel's Recollections, 210, et seq.
^ See above, p. 19.
1865] SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 273
partially preserved, its action has received little at-
tention, but the popular view was that it was unduly
subservient to Davis and played an unimportant
part. ''Congress seems to be doing little or noth-
ing," writes J. B. Jones, January 7, 1865; "but
before it adjourns it is supposed it will as usual pass
the measure dictated by the President. How insig-
nificant a legislative body becomes when it is not
independent! The Confederate Congress will not
live in history, for it never really existed at all ; but
has always been merely a body of subservient men
registering the decrees of the executive." *
As to commerce, external and internal, while in
the war-time the North lost its merchant-marine,
the South never had a merchant-marine to lose:
before the war the ships of the North and of foreign
nations cared for her trade, and during the war the
blockade-runners were usually of foreign construc-
tion and ownership. m\s to internal commerce,
nearly fifteen thousand miles of railroad existed in
the seceding states in 1861;^ but notwithstanding
the lack of a through line from Mobile to the north-
eastward, almost no railroad building took place
during the war. No forges, mills, and machine-
shops existed adequate to keep the existing tracks
and rolling-stock in order, much less to start 'new
enterprises : the rigidity of the blockade barred out
importations. Although throughout the war a se-
^ Jones, Rebel War Clerk's Diary, II., 379.
^ Am. Anmial Cyclop., 1865, P* 742«
VOL. XXI. — 18
ill
274 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1861
cret and illegitimate trade went on between North
and South, connived at by the authorities on both
sides, through which first and last much money
was made by individuals, yet no supplies came in
which at all answered to the requirements of the
South. The ordinary wear and tear of a railroad
makes necessary constant repairs and replacements,
and the southern roads and their equipments were
usually light and cheap: the traffic grew heavy
with the transport of armies and their belongings,
so that the natural use was destructive. As the
war progressed, the pressure from the Federal in-
vaders constantly increased, until for hundreds of
miles the communications, if not in hostile hands,
were wrecked by raiding parties beyond the possi-
bility of reconstruction. Wagon-roads, always poor,
went more and more to ruin ; the navigable streams
became useless through the destruction by the gun-
boats of the craft that plied upon them.
Hence, transportation, whether by sea or land,
became a matter of the greatest difficulty. As early
as the spring of 1863, Fremantle, who made a journey
throughout the Confederacy, from Brownsville,
Texas, to Gettysburg, makes plain the difficulties
of travel everywhere.^ In the fall and winter of
1864, when Sherman had penetrated Georgia and
the Carolinas, people who sought to flee by the
overtaxed trains often found it impossible. The
graphic Mrs. Chesnut makes an amusing reference
* Fremantle, Three Months in the Southern States, passim.
1865] SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 275
to the trials of an over-stout lady of dignity and
standing who was pushed and pulled through the
small window of a car the doors to which were
blocked by crowds/ General Johnston, on his way
in 1864 to take command against Sherman, was de-
layed and endangered in his passage ; and Dick Tay-
lor, sent to command the Department of the Lower
South, found it scarcely possible, a little later, to
cross the Mississippi: it must be done at night;
his guides carried on their shoulders from its place
of concealment to the river the small skiff, the best
conveyance that could be found for a lieutenant-
general : the horses swam alongside ; the party spoke
in whispers, so that the attention of the close at
hand Federal gun-boat might not be attracted.^
The soldiers of Sherman remember that in march-
ing through Georgia they found food in abundance,
and were angry because the prisoners at Anderson-
ville were so near starving. The truth at the mo-
ment was that the abundance of Georgia could not
be got northward to the Confederate armies; it was
equally difficult to send it southward to the pris-
oners, who naturally to the Confederates were of
secondary importance. The apparatus for equali-
I zation and distribution failed: for transit of every
j kind, the highways and the appliances, if not
I broken to pieces by violence, were ruined through
wear and neglect.
* Mrs. Chesnut, Diary from Dixie, 351.
2 Taylor, Destruction and Reconstrtiction, 197.
1;,
276 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1861
As to production, throughout the period until
the territory was entirely overrun by Union armies,
the South remained fruitful. While all the able-
bodied white men from sixteen to seventy at last
were in the camps, the negroes, under the direction
of the old men and the women, tilled the planta-
tions as before the war. The government made
efforts, often successful, to promote the raising of
a variety of provisions rather than cotton. If what
was raised could have been got to market, and if
when there transactions could have been assisted
by a proper currency, the situation might not have
been distressing. As to manufactures, we have seen
the heroic efforts made by a people who had hereto-
fore depended upon what they could import, to
furnish for themselves clothes, shoes, tools, and
machines.^ On many a plantation, and often in the
towns, homespun was woven and dyed butternut,
leather was tanned and worked into foot-gear,
straw plaited, baskets woven, and wooden-ware
contrived, while rough carpentry and blacksmithing
were applied to making what was indispensable.
Thus life was maintained. The hardships of those
forced to live on salaries were greater than those of
farmers and planters, living in cities being not by
any means as easy as in the country.^
Paper money became at last worth scarcely one
per cent, of its face value, and in the disorganiza-
* See above, chap. iv.
2 Eggleston, A Rebel's Recollections, 95.
1865]
SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH
277
tion all proper relation of prices was lost. Eggle-
ston bought in the same day coffee at forty dollars
and tea at thirty dollars a pound; while a dinner
cost twenty dollars, and a newspaper one dollar.*
The value of money constantly fell, and the temp-
tation to speculate prevailed widely. An article
bought to-day was sure to bring more to-morrow,
and the scrip, though felt to be worthless, somehow
because it pretended to be money was held to be
desirable. Speculators fell under suspicion, a fate
shared at last by all who had to do with merchan-
dising. The Confederate Congress, which enjoyed so
little credit during its existence, perhaps did noth-
ing which helped more towards its disrepute than
the funding act of February 17, 1864, upon the
principle "that the best way to enhance the value
of the currency was to depreciate it still further."
The scheme of repudiation proved quite futile, and
the condition grew worse to the end. The day be-
fore Lee's surrender, a cavalry officer, offering a
five-hundred-dollar note for a pair of boots priced
at two hundred dollars, the store-keeper could not
make the change. "Never mind," said the cava-
lier, "I'll keep the boots anyhow. Keep the change.
I never let a little matter of three hundred dollars
stand in the way of a trade." ^ With fiour selling
at last at one thousand dollars a barrel, the cur-
rency broke down. Foreigners, who sometimes
* Eggleston, A Rebel's Recollections, chap. iv.
2 Ibid., 92.
1
i:
278 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1863
came in on blockade-runners, and were able to af-
ford to the people the rare sight of gold or silver
coin, found no trouble in buying at prices near those
prevailing before the war. United States green-
backs, too, were eagerly taken at rates not far dif-
ferent from those at the North, a practice which,
as has been mentioned, the government sought to
correct by statute.^ A general recourse was had at
last to barter, everybody, so far as he could, paying
*4n kind" for what he purchased.
Education at the South before the war, so far as
it was cared for by a public system, was in a rudi-
mentary stage. ^ The common school led a languish-
ing life in a very few cities, and in vast regions the
people were quite unprovided. Private academies
and seminaries for well-to-do boys and girls existed
in every southern state ; above this was an apparatus
of denominational colleges, wide-spread and un-
doubtedly useful; but it was a usual thing for the
sons and daughters of the planters to seek the
North or Europe for advantages which they could
not find at home. At every centre of southern life
were men and women highly accomplished, whose
culture, however, was gained in distant schools, or
from tutors and governesses brought from thence.
At the appeal to arms, the colleges for men were
in great part closed entirely : while the students went
into the ranks, the teachers and heads also often
^ See above, p. 21.
2 Hart, Slavery and Abolition {Am. Nation, XVI.), 20 et seq.
i865] SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 279
entered the public service in various capacities.
John and Joseph Leconte, as we have seen, when
the University of South Carohna was closed, directed
laboratories and powder-factories. D. H. Hill and
Stonewall Jackson, men trained at West Point, and
many more who had been teachers, figured in the
front of battle. For children, schools sometimes
continued, though much inconvenienced and inter-
rupted in the turmoil. A glimpse into the life of
teachers of those days may be had in the follow-
ing story. The Richmond Examiner, "a newspaper
Ishmael," charged Mr. Sydney O. Owens, a teacher,
with extortion; to w^hich Mr. Owens replied that
while his charges were five or six times as high as
in i860, "your shoemaker, carpenter, butcher,
market-man, demand from twenty to thirty or forty
times as much as in i860. Will you show me a
civilian who is charging only six times the prices
in i860, except the teacher only? As to the amass-
ing of fortunes by teachers, make your calculations,
sir, and you will find it an absurdity." ^
In religion, the South has always been more faith-
ful to old doctrines than has the North. While
several of her greatest men, like John C. Calhoun,
John Marshall, and Thomas Jefferson professed a
very liberal faith, the people in general have
not followed them. Wherever the Creole French
and Spanish prevail, as in the Southwest and lower
South, the Catholic church is zealously upheld.
* Eggleston, A Rebel's Recollections, 106.
28o OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1863
In other regions Baptists, Methodists, and Presby-
terians absorb the community, clinging fast to
BibHcal land-marks and the sternest traditions of
the founders. In the cities and among the great
planter-class the Protestant Episcopal church, coeval
in its establishment with the settlement of the
country, has possessed an authority which though
not formally admitted since colonial times, has re-
mained scarcely less definite than that of the Church
of England. As at the North, so at the South, the
excitement of the war greatly stimulated religion.
At home the churches were aglow, revival followed
revival ; no regiment departed for the front without
consecration; and in the camps a fire of devotion
often prevailed not surpassed in history. The lead-
ing characters of the period were men full of pious
ardor. Scenes recorded in the life of Bishop Polk
recall the enthusiasm of the crusades, and his en-
vironment, when his strong personality had oppor-
tunity to make impression, recalls the Templars and
the Knights Hospitalers. Stonewall Jackson made
his life as near as he could a perpetual prayer,^ and
he so powerfully swayed his troops that a cam-
paign became almost a long-continued camp-meet-
ing, interspersed with marches and battles. The re-
ligion of Lee and Jefferson Davis was calmer, but, it
may be believed, not less earnest and profound.
St. Paul's Church, in Richmond, is a stately temple,
and as a spot where the flower of the Confederacy
* Hosmer, Appeal to Arms {Am. Nation, XX.), 139.
i86s]
SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH
281
especially gathered, and whence many a leader
slain in battle was carried to his grave, it has tragic
and interesting associations. One contemplates to-
day v/ith reverence the places within its walls where
each Sunday the president and chief -general of the
Confederacy bent the knee, men sincere, able, and
hard-striving, if misguided.
In this time, at the South, the refined enjoyments
which ordinarily adorn and afford relief to life, gave
way to sterner things: music was mostly silent,
except as employed for martial and religious incite-
ment:^ art ceased to appeal: literature found few
votaries, excepting that certain noble lyrics and
ballads, like ''Stonewall Jackson's Way," and the
"High Tide at Gettysburg," showed that there were
still poets. Few books were imported; still fewer
written and published.^ Pamphlets abounded re-
lating to one or another phase of the war: the
religious warmth caused the issue of many tracts
and sermons; each large town had its newspaper,
those of the cities often conducted with ability and
playing a great part in encouraging resistance. The
straits to which printers were at last reduced were
very grave; while ink and presses failed, paper, too,
grew scarce until coarse wrapping and wall paper
were used for want of anything better.
1 W. R. Whittlesey, List of Music of the South, i860 -1864
(Library of Congress, in preparation) .
2 H. A. Morrison, List of Confederate Documents and Books
published in the Confederacy (Library of Congress, in preparation) .
282 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1863
In struggles like the Civil War in America, it is
no doubt usual and natural that the passion of the
time should seize especially upon the more emo-
tional sex. To say the least, the women of the
North felt as keenly as the men the sentiment of
loyalty; and at the South the women surpassed
the men, if that were possible, in devotedness.
The day went against them, and in the humilia-
tions and injuries which came upon the South
through the defeat, women especially suffered. It
was their part to endure without the power to
strike back; and when, at the close, the country
was laid waste by invading armies, as witnesses
and helpless victims in the inevitable desolation
they had really a harder lot than the men, who
at the front found a relief in the excitement of
battle. Of course, in such a storm, good taste and
delicacy were sometimes torn to shreds. The mani-
festations of the women of New Orleans which
provoked the woman-order " of Butler,^ were in
some instances not less rough and exasperating than
the means taken to suppress them. When the
Federal foragers appeared upon estates whose own-
ers were absent fighting under Lee or Johnston, the
wives, mothers, and daughters left behind could
have no smiles and soft words for the intruders.
The bitterest wrath flashed out as a matter of course,
and wrath as bitter in the answer; and there was
no weighing of words in accusation or retort.
* Hosmer, Appeal to Arms {Am. Nation, XX.), 119.
1865] SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 283
A young woman of New Orleans, who was par-
ticularly obnoxious through her demonstrations
and activity in thwarting the plans of the victors,
framed upon her wall, as her diploma," a note
wherein, over the signature B. F. Butler, it w^as
recorded that "the black-eyed Miss B. is an incor-
rigible little devil w^hom even prison-fare won't
tame." ^ At a plantation a Federal colonel, in the
parlor, uninvited but aiming to be polite, asked the
gentle-mannered daughter of the house to play.
She declined, upon which the colonel seated himself
at the instrument; thereupon the girl, seizing a
hatchet, severed with rapid blows the piano chords.
'*It is my piano, and it shall not give you a mo-
ment's pleasure." ^ Eggleston declares that he
never knew a reconstructed Southern woman,"
and it is very plain even now that while the men
often look back calmly on this war, the injuries still
rankle in the hearts of the women.
Yet after forty years the embers burn low: even
their ancient foes may well pay tribute to the spirit,
fortitude, and self-sacrifice of the women of the
Confederacy. The suggestion publicly made by one
of them late in the war, that all the southern women
should cut off their hair and sell it in Europe, where
it was believed it might bring forty million dollars,^
would have been promptly and gladly carried out,
could it have been managed. "There is not a
^ Eggleston, A Rebel's Recollections, 66. ^ Ibid., 64.
^ Hosmer, Appeal to Arms {Am. Nation, XX.), 68.
284 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1863
woman worthy of the name of Southerner who
would not do it, if we could get it out of the country-
and bread or meat in return." ^ To furnish the
nitre needed for powder, women dug up the earth
of smoke-houses and tobacco-barns from which it
might be extracted. They denied themselves meat
and coffee that it might be sent to the army. An
invalid suffering for proper food said: I think it is
a sin to eat anything that can be used for rations."
In besieged towns, while nursing wounded men in
hospitals, the coolness of the women under fire was
always remarkable.^ In a party of refugees driven
out of Atlanta by the edict of Sherman in September,
1864, a beautiful girl was seen to step from among
her companions, and kneeling to kiss passionately
the soil she was about to forsake.^ Such tales make
up the record of the southern women of the war
period : self-sacrifice could go no further.
The behavior of the three and a half million
negroes of the South during the Civil War is an
interesting subject, and not altogether easy to
understand. Unmistakably they rejoiced, in the
main, in the freedom which the war brought; and
3^et there were no attempts at insurrection. John
Brown's effort at Harper's Ferry was based on
a complete misapprehension,'* and perhaps at the
South the misapprehension of the negro character
' Mrs. McGuire, Diary of a Southern Refugee, 341.
^ Eggleston, A Rebel's Recollections, chap. iii.
' Miss Gay, Life in Dixie During the War, 141.
^ Chadwick, Causes of the Civil War {Am. Nation, XIX.), chap. v.
i865] SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 285
was scarcely less, for many believed that a slave
•uprising was not only possible but probable/
A popular song of the time, perhaps composed by
negroes, runs:
** Say, darkys, hab you seen de Massa,
Wid de muff stash on he face,
Go down de road some time dis mornin'
Like he gwine to leabe de place.
He see de smoke way up de ribber,
Whar de Lincum gun-boats lay;
He took his hat and he leff berry sudden,
An' I s'pose he's runned away.
De Massa run, ha, ha!
De darky stay, ho, ho!
It mus' be now de kingdom's comin',
An' de yar ob jubilo."^
Though in individual instances slaves ran away,
the mass of negroes who came to the Federal armies
came because the masters had abandoned the slaves.
Hunter, commanding in the Sea Islands, declared
that the refugees were the whites, the blacks hav-
ing remained in their places; and in general not
only was there no effort by the negroes to subvert
authority, but they did not flee from it, awaiting
quietly in their cabins the impending deliverance.
In a strange way, the negroes upheld both of the
contending parties. The South could not have
maintained itself in the field but for the service of
the blacks at home, and in every kind of service
* Rhodes, United States, V., 458.
* American War Ballads, George Gary Eggleston, editor, II., 200.
286 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1863
but that of fighting-men at the front: the North
was scarcely, if at all, less dependent upon the
"grape-vine telegraph," upon the work of the
contraband with the trains, on the fortifications —
indeed, on the firing-line; and whether serving
North or South, the blacks were equally patient,
faithful, and effective. When Grant was advancing
back of Vicksburg, in 1863, Mrs. Sm-edes relates that
the negroes on her father's plantation remained
devoted — showing indeed unusual affection, and con-
cealing property so that the invaders could not
find it.^ At the same time, it does not appear that
they objected to those among their number who
helped the Union: such departures no doubt were
sometimes connived at by those who themselves
stuck to the old order. Indeed, it may be believed
that the same individuals, while on the one hand
protecting and aiding their owners to whom with
their warm hearts they felt attached, at another
time helped the enemy, the Lincoln men, whose
success meant for them emancipation. Some see
in this behavior an oxlike stolidity — a temperament
without initiative or power to organize, submissive,
yielding dumbly to whatever strong white hand
might for the moment be raised above them: some
feel a sense of permanent gratitude to a race which
was faithful under great temptation.^
^ Mrs. Smedes, A Southern Planter, 209.
2 Grady, in Hart, Hist, told by Contemporaries, IV., 652, where
the speech is quoted.
i86s] SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 287
However it may be explained, it is certain that
at the breaking up of the old relations of master
and slave there was often mutual respect and
affection. "They were our greatest comfort dur-
ing the war," exclaims Mrs. Smedes. ''They seem-
ed to do better when they knew there was trouble
in the white family." ^ Mis^ Gay relates an anec-
dote of a slave at once naive and shrewd. She was
one day surprised by a request from ''King," a
valuable slave, that she would sell him to "Mr.
Johnson," a man whom King was known to disHke.
When pressed to explain. King declared to Miss Gay
and her mother a strong attachment, but said that
he had been sent by Mr. Johnson to arrange the
bargain which he. King, was anxious to conclude,
a lot and store in Atlanta being offered in exchange.
"I tell you what. Miss Polly, when this war is over
none of us is going to belong to you. We'll all be
free." By parting with him to Mr. Johnson, who
did not see the near ending of slavery, as King ex-
plained. Miss Polly might transfer the loss to him,
while she possessed comfortably the Atlanta real
estate. "He's a mighty mean man, and I want
him to lose me." Thus King proposed, in the
transaction, to enjoy a triple pleasure: while ob-
taining his own freedom, to benefit the mistress
whom he loved, and to satisfy his grudge against
the man whom he disliked.^
^ Mrs. Smedes, A Southern Planter, 196.
2 Miss Gay, Life in Dixie During the War, 54 et seq.
288 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1863
Joseph Le Conte, an intelligent and conscientious,
owner of slaves, "felt distressingly the responsibility
of their care; because I felt that those who owned
slaves ought personally to manage them, as my
father did. I could at any time during the twenty
years previous to the war, have sold my land and
negroes with great advantage to myself. This I
refused to do out of a sense of responsibility for
their welfare"; and he found that emancipation
took from his shoulders a great burden, though he
had fears as to the welfare of his people so suddenly
manumitted.^ Eggleston describes the behavior of
his negroes when the white men were all gone. Most
of them desired freedom and quite understood the
situation: they knew that they had only to assert
themselves to make their freedom certain, but they
remained faithful and affectionate. At the end of
the war they acted with modesty and wisdom, a
great, calm patience being their most universal char-
acteristic.^
At the beginning of 1865 "the seceding states con-
tained a people overwhelmed by bereavements,
by material ruin, by the disappointment of every
hope. The face of things was very stern: famine
was close at hand to many: in the field there was
desperate battle, the ultimate result of which none
could doubt. With one or two concrete examples
let the story end.
* Le Conte, Autobiography, 231.
2 Eggleston, A Rebel's Recollections, 255 et seq.
1865] SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 289
The rebel war-clerk's entry for January 27, 1865,
is: ''Clear and coldest morning of the winter. Only
the speculators have a supply of food and fuel. . . .
My wood-house was broken into last night and
two of the nine sticks of wood taken. Wood is
selling at five dollars a stick. The thermometer at
zero."^
Mrs. Chesnut writes, January 17, 1865: ''Hood
came yesterday. He is staying at the Prestons'
with Jack. They sent for us. What a heartfelt
greeting he gave us! He can stand well enough
without his crutch, but he does very slow walking.
How plainly he spoke out dreadful words about
'my defeat and discomfiture; my army destroyed,
my losses.' Isabella said, 'Maybe you attempted
the impossible,' and began one of her merriest
stories. Jack Preston touched me on the arm and
we slipped out. 'He did not hear a word she was
saying. He had forgotten us all. Did you notice
how he stared in the fire ? and the lurid spots which
came out in his face, and the drops of perspiration
that stood on his forehead?' 'Yes, he is going over
some bitter scene. He sees Willie Preston with his
heart shot away. He sees the panic at Nashville,
and the dead on the battle-field at Franklin.'
'That agony on his face comes again and again,'
said tender-hearted Jack. ' I can't keep him out of
those absent fits. ' " ^
* Jones, Rebel War Clerk's Diary, II., 400.
2 Mrs. Chesnut, Diary from Dixie, 342 et seq.
VOL. XXI. — 19
CHAPTER XVII
DOWNFALL OF THE CONFEDERACY
(April, 1865)
FROM the battle of Chattanooga, in October,
1863, to the spring of 1865, General Grant un-
derwent severe trials. His labors were incessant,
his responsibilities enormous, his capacity exercised
to its fullest. Nevertheless, he was disappointed
where he tried hardest; for after a year's steady
campaigning, Richmond and the Army of Northern
Virginia were still defiant. Though Meade con-
tinued to command the Army of the Potomac,
Grant was always at his side, the real leader; and
it was he whom the people judged for whatever
that army did or failed to do. Meantime, Sherman,
Sheridan, and Thomas reached high distinction.
Their success, no doubt, was in great part due to
Grant, who put those generals in place, had a hand
in all their planning if he was not absolutely the
director of their movements, and kept Lee from
reinforcing their opponents; but to the popular
eye this was not quite apparent. Grant's tenacity,
indeed, through protracted disaster, excited wonder.
Really, his heroic quality was never more manifest
1865] DOWNFALL OF CONFEDERACY 291
than in that long year's endurance of hope deferred;
but this is plainer in the retrospect than it was at
the moment.
In the other camp, Lee had reached a better
recognition; his fame filled the world. January
19, 1865, the Confederate Congress, by making him
commander-in-chief, conferred on him practically
supreme power: he was the idol of the South, and
could do what he chose within his lines. But to
the Confederate capable of measuring the situation
the end was evidently near.
The state of things at Richmond when the cam-
paign was about to open is well indicated by an
entry in the Rebel War Clerk's Diary} "At a public
meeting, Mr. Benjamin, being a member of the
cabinet, made a significant and most extraordinary
speech. He said the white fighting men were ex-
hausted, and that black men must recruit the
army — and it must be done at once. That General
Lee had informed him he must abandon Richmond
if not soon reinforced, and that negroes would
answer. The states must send them. Congress
having no authority. Virginia must lead the way
and send twenty thousand to the trenches in twenty
days. Let the negroes volunteer, and be emanci-
pated. He also said that all who had cotton,
tobacco, corn, meat, etc., must give them to the
government, not sell them." March 13, the Con-
federate Congress passed an act authorizing the
^ Jones, Rebel War Clerk's Diary, II., 415 (Febmary 10, 1865).
292 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1865
enlistment of slaves as soldiers/ The opposition
was great ; the vote was carried by the influence of
Lee, who declared, February 18, ''that it was not
only expedient but necessary"; that "t)ie negroes,
under proper circumstances, will make efficient sol-
diers." The end came before the effect of this pol-
icy, judged by many desperate, became apparent.^
Lee could oppose to the one hundred and twenty-
five thousand men of Grant probably not half as
many.^ Warfare, which all winter long had to some
extent continued, became in March as active as
possible.^ Lee, resolving to abandon Richmond,
planned to unite with Johnston, in North Carohna:
after which, Sherman having been crtished, there
was a desperate chance that Grant might be over-
thrown. Lee could accomplish colossal tasks with
small resources, and was sanguine enough to see an
opportunity here. March 25, he began operations
by strongly reinforcing the divisions of J. B. Gordon,
and sending him to attack Fort Stedman, a work
near the centre of the Federal line south of Peters -
burg. Confederate deserters had been coming over
in considerable numbers to the Union lines, and
when the Federal pickets before light saw the ap-
proaching crowd, they misjudged them to be fugi-
tives, an error resulting in Confederate success.
1 War Records, Serial No. 129, p. 1161.
^ For Lee's letter, see Jones, Rebel War Clerk's Diary, II., 432.
^ War Records, Serial No. 95, p. 62; Humphreys, Virginia
Campaign, 1864-1865, p. 323.
^ War Records, Serial No. 95, passim.
1865] DOWNFALL OF CONFEDERACY 293
But it was temporary: the Federals rallied, and
Gordon was driven out with heavy loss/
March 26, Sheridan arrived,^ after severe winter
operations on the line of the Virginia Central Rail-
road. Next day also came Sherman, by steamer
from North Carolina: and at the same time, from
Washington, no other than the president. The
heads consulted, but there was no pause in opera-
tions. A plan for despatching Sheridan's cavalry
south to join Sherman's army was fmstrated by
floods which made the rivers impassable. The
troopers, therefore, crossing to Cit}^ Point, were
sent at once by Grant to Dinwiddle Court-House,
on the extreme left, where it was designed to turn
Lee's right, the Confederate intrenchments running
from Richmond thirty-five miles in that direction.
Lee speedily reinforced the threatened point, and
the Federal cavalry, supported by the Fifth and
Second Corps, struggled at first unsuccessfully; but
April 7, Sheridan gained a victory at Five Forks,
having attacked with forty-five thousand men not
half that number of infantry and cavalry : ^ but the
defence was very brave and able, Pickett and Fitz-
hugh Lee being conspicuous.^ A regrettable inci-
dent of the day was that Sheridan saw fit to remove
from the command of the Fifth Corps the veteran
* Gordon, Reminiscences of Civil War, 395.
2 Sheridan, Personal Memoirs, IL, 125.
^ Livermore, Numbers and Losses, 137.
* Battles and Leaders, IV., 708 et seq.; Long, Lee, 409 et seq.
294 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1865
Warren, an officer of the highest distinction: this
action was authorized and approved by Grant, who
found Warren overcritical and assuming.^ The case
cannot be discussed here: a court of inquiry, many
years later, found nothing wanting in Warren's con-
duct on that day, and his reputation bears no stain. ^
Henceforth things moved rapidly. April 2, Wright
and Parke, with the Sixth and Ninth Corps, feeling
sure that Lee had thinned his lines in their front
while strengthening his right, expressed confidence
in their ability to break them; by this time, indeed,
Lee had made up his mind to abandon Peters-
burg. The Federals attacked at daybreak from
advanced positions gained a week before in the
battle of Fort Stedman ; while Ord, with the Army of
the James, assaulted farther to the left : they car-
ried the intrenchments of Petersburg, occupying
next da}^ that long - defended stronghold. Among
the fallen was the brave Confederate General A. P.
Hill, whom w^hether as man or soldier it would be
hard to overpraise. April 3, Lee evacuated Rich-
mond, the beginning of the end!
The Confederates marched westward for Amelia
Court -House, to which point supplies had been
ordered. While Weitzel, with the Twenty-fifth
Corps, occupied Richmond, most of Grant's army
streamed after their retreating foes, now greatly
reduced in number. At Amelia Court-House, Lee
^ Grant, Personal Memoirs, II., 306.
2 Humphreys, Virginia Campaign, 1864-186 5, p. 357 et seq.
1865] DOWNFALL OF CONFEDERACY 295
found that by a mistake in orders the supplies were
not there. With no food, therefore, except what
they could gather from the country, losing a pre-
cious day in the effort, the doomed and scanty
columns toiled on. The South Side and the Dan-
ville railroads were now lost to them, the Federals
having seized the junction at Burkesville. Was
there a possibility of escaping westward ? April 6,
Ewell, with eleven general officers and his division
of eight thousand men, was captured at Sailor's
Creek. Longstreet, near by at Rice's Station, with
whom marched Lee himself, evaded the pursuers
a little longer. Barlow's division of the Second
Federal Corps, marching at double-quick, saved,
April 7, a bridge already on fire, at Farmville.
On the evening of April 8, Custer's troopers seized
supply-trains at Appomattox station; and by the
9th Sheridan's cavalry, hurrying forward, barred
the road before Lee's head of column.^ Already a
deputation of officers headed by General Pendleton
had expressed to Lee the conviction that their cause
was hopeless : he now saw himself that the end had
come.
The capitulation took place in the house of a
man named ]\IcLean, at Appomattox Court-House,
on April 9. Between March 2 and April 7, Lee had
lost in killed and wounded 6266, and in prisoners
13,769; thousands more had deserted, so that at
^Longstreet, Manassas to Appomattox, chaps, xlii., xliii.;
Battles and Leaders, IV., 729.
296 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1865
last but 26,765 laid down their arms.^ "Men, we
have fought through the war together. I have
done my best for you. My heart is too full to say
more," was Lee's simple and manly farewell.^
At the interview between the two leaders, Lee
appeared in a new and handsome uniform, com^»
plete to the elegant sword at his side. No finer
type of manly grace and dignity can be im.agined
than the Confederate leader as he stepped down'
that day from his eminent position. Grant, on the
other hand, not anticipating the meeting, was in
the blouse of a private soldier, dusty from riding.
His face was haggard from illness which he had
suffered during the preceding night. The two men
met courteously, exchanging reminiscences of expe-
riences which they had undergone together in the
old army. At last Grant wrote out his tenns—
arms to be surrendered, the Army of Northern Vir-
ginia to be paroled until exchanged, the officers
to retain their side-arms and private horses: after
a little talk the ''horse clause" was extended to
include each private soldier claiming to own a horse
or a mule. Grant conceiving that as ''small farmers,"
which most of them were, the animals would be
needed "to put in the crop." This concession Lee
believed "would have a happy effect." ^ On these
^ Livermore, Numbers and Losses, 135.
2 Fitzhugh Lee, R. E. Lee, 396.
3 Grant, Personal Memoirs, II., 341 et seq.; Sheridan, Personal
Memoirs, II., chaps, vii., viii.; War Records, Serial No. 95, pp.
557-1305 (Appomattox Campaign).
i865] DOWNFALL OF CONFEDERACY 297
conditions Lee's army, "fought to a frazzle," ^ at
last succumbed. The final campaign cost a Federal
loss of ten thousand. The capitulation of Con-
federate commands far and near followed as the
natural sequence. At Mobile a bloody and un-
necessary battle was taking place at this very time:
the city would have fallen without it.^ April 26,
Johnston surrendered, adding 37,047 to the number
of paroled prisoners. The impetuous Sherman here,
in arranging the conditions, exceeded his authority;
and on the other hand, Stanton was captious and
arbitrary, an unpleasant hitch, in which there was
no superior gtiiding hand to bring the two parties to-
gether.^ ]\Iay 4, Dick Taylor gave up to Canby all
troops still in arms in Mississippi and Alabama, a
procedure followed, ]\Iay 26, by Kirby Smith, in
the trans - Mississippi. The total number paroled
after surrender on the Appomattox terms, through-
out the Confederacy, was 174,223.^ On May 10,
Jefferson Davis, who till then had evaded his pur-
suers, was captured in southern Georgia, and there-
after imprisoned in Fortress ^lonroe.
"The news is from Heaven," wrote Lowell, after
Appomattox. "I felt a strange and tender exalta-
tion. I wanted to laugh and I wanted to cry, and
ended by holding my peace and feeling devoutly
^ J. B. Gordon's expression, see Long, Lee, 421.
^ War Records, Serial No. 103, pp. 87-322 (Mobile Campaign).
^ W. T. Sherman, Memoirs, II., 347 et seq.; Gorham, Stanton,
II., 170 et seq., for Stanton's relations with Sherman.
*War Records, Serial Xo. 126, p. 532.
298 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1865
thankful. There is something magnificent in hav-
ing a country to love. It is almost like what one
feels for a woman. Not so tender, perhaps, but
to the full as self -forgetful." ^
As we take farewell of Grant and Lee, figures so
strongly contrasted as they meet in the interview
at Appomattox, a word or two of characterization
may be properly spoken. Both are held deep
within the hearts of Americans as heroes sincere
and manly. Of Lee, perhaps, it may be said that
he has been unfortunate in biographers, who have
painted him as free not only from all faults but
also from all foibles. Not content with traits of
greatness, those who describe him dwell often upon
petty things — his well- cut beard, the correctness of
his dress, the whiteness of his teeth, his proper de-
portment— ^until one almost expects to read, as he
turns the page, that his hair was never parted awry
and that he never ate with his knife. The only
trace of shortcoming in him which one diligent
reader of the accounts of him has been able to dis-
cover, is that he sometimes slept in church, if the
sermon was dull. Such abnormal absence of defect
becomes depressing: one longs for the discovery of
a fault to redeem to humanity a hero so flawless.
We can admire but hardly sympathize with a
character entire and perfect.
Grant, on the other hand, always homely and
unimpressive, discredited by his ante-bellum record,
^Lowell, Letters, I., 344 (April 13, 1865).
1865] DOWNFALL OF CONFEDERACY 299
informal to the point of negligence about all details
of dress and manner, yet withal simple, intrepid,
honest, with an eye single to the great purpose which
he had adopted — here is a character that can be
embraced ; he has roughness upon which the human
heart can take hold — worth most substantial, but
with a foil of limitation that makes him a man
among men.
Both men rank among the great soldiers of the
world. The best judgment seems to decide that
Lee constantly grew, being never greater than in
his final campaigns, which are faultless examples
of baffling a great power with small resources. In
Grant's record, the masterpiece is undoubtedly the
capture of Vicksburg. And yet where shall we
parallel the relentless force of will with which, in
1864, he, a man of gentle and humane nature,
smote with his flesh and blood hammer, believing
it to be the only way to success, and even hardened
his heart towards Andersonville, determined to se-
cure by whatever sacrifice the salvation of his
country!
Abraham Lincoln was close at hand, at City
Point, when Richmond fell and the troops of the
Union took possession. In company with Admiral
Porter and a few officers, guarded by ten sailors
from the fleet, he landed from a barge near Libby
Prison and went on foot to the centre of the town.
It was by no means a triumphant march. To such
of the population as he encountered, mostly negroes,
300 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1865
his bearing was friendly. He consented to a meet-
ing of the Virginia legislature, hoping they might
withdraw their troops from Lee's army, still in the
field, and so close the war without further blood-
shed. Nothing came of it, but the incident is inter-
esting as showing Lincoln's continued determination
to allow the seceding states, after once submitting
under proper guarantees, to have a voice in the
settlement. This action of the president displeased
many earnest men, Stanton remonstrating in the
cabinet, and the committee on the conduct of the
war, through its chairman, Wade, protesting with
indignation.*
Lincoln returned to Washington, where, during
the forenoon of April 9, was received the news of
Lee*s surrender. On the evening of Tuesday, April
II, he made to a company gathered at the White
House his last public address. Aside from the in-
terest arising from this fact, the address is in itself
noteworthy as a clear description of the course he
proposed to follow in reconstruction, and as a par-
ticularly good illustration of his calm, lucid wisdom.
The seceding states, being now fixed within the
Union by the success of the Federal arms, the presi-
dent thought it idle to dispute as to whether they
had been brought back from without into the Union,
or had never been out of it. As to Louisiana, he
said: ''The amount of constituency, so to speak,
on which the new Louisiana government rests,
' Julian, Political Recollections, 254.
1865] DOWNFALL OF CONFEDERACY 301
would be more satisfactory to all if it contained
fifty thousand, or thirty thousand, or even twenty
thousand, instead of only about twelve thousand,
as it does. It is also unsatisfactory^ to some that
the elective franchise is not given to the colored
man. I would myself now prefer that it were
conferred on the very intelligent, and on those who
serve oui* cause as soldiers."
Admitting that what had been done was not
quite satisfactory, the president contended that
the expedient way was not to reject, but to accept,
with the hope of bettering what was imperfect.
Summing up what had been done — the orderly
organization of a state government, the adoption
of a free constitution giving the benefit of public
schools equally to blacks and whites, the ratifica-
tion of the thirteenth amendment, the state being
thus committed "to the many things and nearly
all the things the nation wants," Lincoln proceeded:
Now if we reject and spurn them we do our utmost
to disorganize and disperse them. We, in effect,
say to the white man : You are worthless, or worse ;
we will neither help you nor be helped by you. To
the blacks we say: This cup of liberty which these,
your masters, hold to your lips, we will dash from
you, and leave you to the chances of gathering the
j spilled and scattered contents in some vague and
undefined when, where, and how. If this course,
discouraging and paralyzing both white and black,
I has any tendency to bring Louisiana into proper
i
i
302 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1865
practical relations with the Union, I have so far
been unable to perceive it. . . . Concede that the
new government of Louisiana is only to what it
should be, as the egg is to the fowl, we shall sooner
have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smash-
ing it."
What had been said of Louisiana, Lincoln urged
in concluding the topic, would apply generally to
other states. And yet since the situation in each
state must be in some ways peculiar, no conclusive
and inflexible plan could safely be prescribed as to
details and collaterals. Such an exclusive and in-
flexible plan would surely become a new entangle-
ment, although important principles may and must
be inflexible.
The 14th of April was Good-Friday, but was a
day of happiness rather than sadness. It was the
fourth anniversary of the surrender of Fort Sum-
ter, in 1 861, and there was particular fitness in
rejoicing on that day over the changed condition of
affairs. The country universally was in a thanks-
giving mood: even at the South, peace, accom-
panied though it was by defeat, seemed the great-
est blessing. At Fort Sumter, in particular, the
ceremonies were elaborate. A great company pro-
ceeded thither from the North: an oration was
delivered within the fortress by Henry Ward
Beecher, and after a prayer by the very chaplain
who four years before had prayed upon the same
spot, General Robert Anderson hoisted upon the
1865] DOWNFALL OF CONFEDERACY 303
flag-staff the very national flag which had been
hauled down at the surrender.
At Washington a cabraet meeting took place in
which, among other things, a measure was proposed
somewhat careless in its terms as regards the rights
of states: the president made known his wish that
the just rights of states should be carefully upheld/
General Grant, being in the city, was invited to
accompany Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln that night to
Ford's Theatre, to a performance of ''Our American
Cousin." Grant, having planned to visit his chil-
dren at school, declined, in that way perhaps saving
his life.^ Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln drove in the evening
to the theatre on Tenth Street, between E and F
streets, accompanied only by two young friends.
About ten o'clock John Wilkes Booth, an actor of
some popularity, son and brother of much more
famous men, a fanatical secessionist, forced his
way into the box and shot the president from a
point close at hand, making his escape across the
stage. About the same time a confederate attacked
Mr. Seward in his bed, to which the secretary was
confined from the effects of a serious accident a
few days before. Seward, though dangerously
wounded, recovered. Lincoln, however, having been
carried across the street to a bed, sank rapidly.
I The ball had traversed his brain: on the morning
of April 1 5 he died.
* Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, X,, 282.
'Grant, Personal Memoirs, IL, 357.
I
li
304 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1865
The expression of grief and horror throughout
the civilized world was almost universal. Many
who had ridiculed and denounced were among the
sincerest mourners. Said Stanton, weeping at his
bedside: ''Now he belongs to the ages!" Nor was
the South backward in evidence of sorrow. Some
of her wiser men felt from the first, that however
sore the calamity might be for others, the South
was especially smitten.
It is the conviction of the people of the United
States of America, based upon facts which the pres-
ent record attempts to set forth, that the Union
could not have been preserved without the patience,
resolution, judgment, and devotedness of Abraham
Lincoln. If so much as this can be justly said, per-
haps no one among the sons of men has better served
his kind.
The victims of the Civil War, among whom
Abraham Lincoln was the most illustrious, num-
bered on the Union side fully three hundred and
sixty thousand, counting only those who died in
the field through casualties and disease; the war
brought death to as many more perhaps, through
causes less direct. As to the South, the account
cannot be definitely rendered, but probably would
not be much less. The death-list therefore runs
beyond the million mark,^ while of men surviving
but disabled by wounds or disease, no definite es-
timate can be made. Rhodes judges $4,750,000,000
* Livermore, Numbers and Losses, 1-63.
1865] DOWNFALL OF CONFEDERACY 305
to be a fair estimate of what the war cost the
North, whereas $3,000,000,000 would have been
generous purchase money for the four milHon slaves
before the war began. The United States won a po-
sition ' ' in the first rank among military nations " ; ^
and to support the proposition that it is a good
thing for a nation to be capable of fighting hard
upon occasion, Rhodes quotes Francis Parkman :
''Since the world began, no nation has ever risen
to a commanding eminence which has not, at some
period of its history, been redoubtable in war.
And in every well-balanced development of nations,
as of individuals, the warlike instinct and the mili-
tary point of honor are not repressed and extin-
guished, but refined and civilized. It belongs to
the pedagogue, not the philosopher, to declaim
against them as relics of barbarism." ^ This opinion
we may accept though recognizing the hatefulness
of war; and, though sorrowing, also that of Sir
Charles Lyell, that the result of the Civil War is
worth all it cost in blood and treasure.^ The rescued
Union at the present moment holds within its forty-
six states a population close upon a hundred millions.
To form that population, into a strong Anglo-Saxon
stock blood has been infused from many of the
better breeds of men. The life of this great people
is regulated according to the best polity which has
^ Livermore, Numbers and Losses, 77.
2 Rhodes, United States, V., 188.
^ Mrs. Lyell, Sir C. Lyell, II., 399.
VOL. XXI. — 20
3o6 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1865
been developed in the long evolution of the human
race;^ the appliances of the highest civilization are
scattered abroad in it; a patriotism which has
become a passion characterizes its citizens. Through
the lives and the resources poured out in the war,
it was secured that there should be one nation, not
a jarring neighborhood of rival powers, with mutual
jealousies, with conflicting interests, with delicate
questions as to the balance of powder, occuring and
again recurring, and only to be settled in the midst
of confusion and slaughter. The war settled not
only that the Union should persist, but that its
corner-stone should be freedom. Among the na-
tions of the earth, there is not one whose foundations
seem more stable, a stability which North and South
are equally anxious to maintain.
* Ho.smer, Short History of Anglo-Saxon Freedom.
CHAPTER XVIII
CRITICAL ESSAY ON AUTHORITIES
'HIS chapter continues and supplements the similar
chapter at the end of the preceding volume of this
series, James K. Hosmer, The Appeal to Arms. Many
of the works here noticed will be cited also in the succeed-
ing volume, W. A. Dunning, Reconstrviction, Political and
Economic. Selecting from many thousands of works, we
mention first the most useful secondary publications.
Of books heretofore listed but not evalued : W. C. Bryant
and S. H. Gay, Popular History of the United States (2d ed.,
5 vols., 1896), IV., 435-600, a work of good character,
though Bryant had no hand in the authorship; Rossiter
Johnson, Short History of the War (1888); J. N. Lamed,
History for Ready Reference (6 vols., 1901), III., 529-675,
a body of excellent material made easily accessible ; James
Ford Rhodes, History of the United States from the Com-
promise of 1850 (7 vols., 1893-1906), III.-V., of the highest
authority; for strictures on some portions, see C. F. Adams,
Some Phases of the Civil War (1905); James Schouler,
History of the United States under the Constitution (6 vols.,
rev. ed., 1899), VI., comprehensive and well studied;
Goldwin Smith, History of United States (1893), from the
point of view of an extremely able and fair-minded Eng-
lishman; Woodrow Wilson, History of the American People
(5 vols,, 1902), IV., 145-312, a well-proportioned and
scholarly summary.
GENERAL HISTORIES
3o8 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1861
AMERICAN HISTORIES OF THE PERIOD
Adam Badeau, Military History of Grant (3 vols., 1868-
1881), an elaborate technical work by an officer closely-
attached to Grant; John M. Botts, Great Rebellion (1866),
the work of a Virginian who remained loyal to the Union;
John W. Burgess, The Civil War and the Constitution (2 vols.,
1901), by a student of political science; J. M. Callahan,
Diplomatic History of the Southern Confederacy (1901),
the subject well studied though clumsily presented; S. S.
Cox, Three Decades (1865), by an able Democratic politician ;
Theodore A. Dodge, Bird' s-Eye View of the Civil War (1897),
the straightforward account of a scientific soldier helped out
by simple but sufficient maps; John W. Draper, History of
the Civil War (3 vols., 1867), useful but written too near the
time to have proper perspective ; which may be said also of
E. A. Duyckinck, History of the Civil War (3 vols,, no date) ;
C. A. Evans, editor, Confederate History (12 vols., 1899), a
collection of accounts by southern writers edited by a mer-
itorious soldier; John Fiske, Mississippi Valley in the Civil
War (1900), well studied and attractively presented; J.
Fitch, Annals of the Army of the Cumberland (1863); J. R.
Giddings, History of the Rebellion (1864), treats the subject
incompletely from the point of view of a strong abolitionist ;
Horace Greeley, The American Conflict (2 vols., 1864-1866),
vol. II. occupied by an account of the Civil War, full of
information and marked by the writer's excellences and
defects; Harper's Pictorial History of the Rebellion (2 vols.,
1868), made up both in text and in illustrations from
Harper's Weekly, which portrays most graphically events
and characters throughout the four years; J. T. Headley,
The Great Rebellion (2 vols., 1866), popular and partisan;
Rossiter Johnson, Story of a Great Conflict (1894), a use-
ful resume; Frank Leslie's Weekly, the rival of Harper's
Weekly, as a pictorial record; John A. Logan, The Great
Conspiracy (1886), from the point of view of a War Dem-
ocrat who figured both in field and forum; B. J. Lossing,
Pictorial History of the Civil War (3 vols., 186 6- 1869), espe-
1865] AUTHORITIES 309
cially valuable for its illustrations; Asa Mahan, Critical
History of the Late War (1877), not conspicuous; J. G.
Nicolay, "The Civil War, 1861-1865 " (in Cambridge Modern
History, VII., 443-548, 1903); J. G. Nicolay, "The North
During the War, 1861-1865 " (Ibid., 568-602) — careful sum-
maries by one of the best-informed of Civil War authorities;
Louis Philippe Albert d'Orleans, Comte de Paris, History
of the Civil War in America (transl., 4 vols., 1875-1888), an
imfinished account in detail of military events by a French
nobleman, an accomplished soldier who served in the Army
of the Potomac, of high authority; E. A. Pollard, The
Lost Cause (1867), a Richmond editor, brilliant, very
unfriendly to Jefferson Davis, writes a book not to be
neglected; J. C. Reed, The Brothers* War (1905); J, C.
Schwab, "The South During the War, 1861-1865" (in
Cambridge Modern History, VII., 603-621, 1903), a resume
by a writer distinguished in the field of economics ; William
Swinton, Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac (1882), also,
Twelve Decisive Battles of the War (1867), graphic pictures,
but less relied upon than once; T. B. Van Home, History of
the Army of the Cumberland (2 vols., 1875), by a chaplain
who made the campaigns; O. J. Victor, History of the South-
ern Rebellion (4 vols., 1868), superseded by later and better
compilations; Woodrow Wilson, Division and Reunion
(1879), brief discussion by a philosophical historian.
FOREIGN HISTORIES OF THE PERIOD
English. — H. C. Fletcher, History of the Civil War in
America (3 vols., 1865), detailed and intelligent; Percy
Greg, History of the United States from the Foundation of
Virginia to the Reconstruction of the Union (2 vols., 1887),
abounds in errors; vol. II. largely taken up with an account
of the Civil War, hostile to the North; W. B. Wood and
J. E. Edmonds, History of the Civil War in the United States
(1905), a careful study by British officers designed especially
for students of the Staff College.
French. — E. C. Grasset, La Guerre de la Secession (2 vols.,
3IO OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1861
1886); E. R. L. Laboulaye, Pourquoi le Nord ne pent
accepter la Separation (1863), an able presentation of the
northern case; F. Lecomte, La Guerre de la Secession (3
vols., 1866-1867) ; Louis Philippe d'Orleans, Comte de Paris,
Histoire de la Guerre Civile en Amerique (7 vols., with atlas,
1 874-1 890), the translation is elsewhjere mentioned and
characterized; Philippe Regis, Baron de Trobriand, Quatre
Ans de Campagnes a Varmee du Potomac (1867), narrates
the service of a brave Franco- American.
German. — H. Blankenburg, Die innern Kaempfe der
N ordamerikanischen Union (1869); Luecke, Der
Buergerkrieg der Vereinigten Staaten (1892) ; J. A. Scheibert,
Der Amerikanische Buergerkrieg (1874) ; E. R. Schmidt, Der
Amerikanische Buergerkrieg (1867).
CONSTITUTIONAL DISCUSSIONS
The following books may be consulted, table of contents
and index in each case affording the necessary guidance.
The Northern Side. — G. S. Boutwell, Constitution of
the United States at the End of the First Century (1895) ; A.
G. Fisher, Trial of the Constitution (1862); John C. Hurd,
The Union-State (1890), philosophical and erudite; Judson
S. Landon, The Constitutional History and Government of
the United States (3d ed., 1905); John J. Lalor, Cyclopcedia
of Political Science (3 vols., 1881), trustworthy discussions
of many topics in large part by Alexander Johnston ; these
valuable articles have been republished under the editor-
ship of James A. Woodbum under the title of American
Political History, lydj-iSyd (2 vols., 1905); E. McClain,
Constitutional Law in the United States (1905) ; Joel Parker,
Constitutional Law with Reference to the Present Condition
of the United States (1862), by the eminent head of the
Harvard Law School, who had no heart for the struggle;
J.N. Pomeroy, Introduction to the Constitutional Law of the
United States (1868); Joseph Story, Commentaries on the
Constitution of the United States (4th ed., by Thomas M.
Cooley, 1880), of the highest authority; Joel Tiffany,
AUTHORITIES
Treatise on Government (1867); H. E. Von Hoist, Constitu-
tional History of the United States (transl. by Lalor, Mason,
and Shorey, 8 vols., 187 6- 1892), much deferred to; William
Whiting, War Powers of the Government (1864) ; Henry Wil-
son, Political Measures of the United States Congress (1866).
The Southern Side. — P. C. Centz (pseudonym for
Bernard J. Sage), Republic of Republics (1880), best brief
presentation of the southern view; J. L. M. Curry, Civil
History of the Confederate Government (1901), by a respected
statesman and educator; R, L. Dabne^T-, Defence of Virginia
(1867); Jefferson Davis, Rise and Fall of the Confederate
Government (2 vols., 1881), detailed, restrained, reticent of
animosities felt towards critics at home and enemies out-
side, but marked by faulty judgment; Alexander H.
Stephens, Constitutional View of the Late War between the
States (2 vols., 1868-1870), a defence of the South by one of
the best heads of the Confederacy; James Williams, The
South Vindicated (1862).
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Montague Bernard, Historical Account of the Netitrality
of Great Britain (1870) ; John Bigelow, France and the Con-
federate Navy (1888); Tr avers Twiss, Law of Nations Con-
sidered as Independent Political Communities (2 vols., 1875) ;
Francis M. Wharton, Digest of International Law of United
States (1886); Henry Wheaton, Elements of International
Law (1892); Theodore Woolsey, International Law (1901).
MILITARY GOVERNMENT
Horace Binney, Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus
(1865); RoUin C. Hurd, Treatise on Habeas Corpus (1858);
John A. Marshall, American Bastile (1869). Very helpful
are the biographies of Lincoln, Seward, Chase, and Stanton.
THE NEGROES
T. W. Higginson, Army Life in a Black Regiment (1882);
M. G. McDougal, Fugitive Slaves (Radcliffe Monographs,
312 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1861
1 891); Mary Tremaine, Slavery in the District of Columbia
(1892); G. W. Williams, History of the Negro Troops in the
War of the Rebellion (1888); Henry Wilson, Rise and Fall
of the Slave Power in America (3 vols., 1872-1877).
FINANCE
H. C. Adams, Ptiblic Debts (1893); A. S. Bolles, Financial
History (3 vols., 1885); Davis R. Dewey, Financial History
of the United States (1903), an excellent authority; John J.
Knox, American Notes, sl history of the various issues of
paper money of the United States (1899); J. C. Schwab,
Confederate States of America, Financial and Industrial
(1901), well studied and presented; C. J. Stille, How a Free
People Conduct a Long War (1863); W. G. Sumner, Ameri-
can Currency (1874); F. W. Taussig, History of the Tariff
(1885) ; Horace White, Money and Banking, i866~i8j4
(1903); Edward Stanwood, American Tariff Controversies .
in the Nineteenth Century (2 vols., 1903).
NAVAL AFFAIRS
C. C. Beaman, National and Private Alabama Claims
(1871); C. B. Boynton, History of the Navy during the
Rebellion (1868); James D, Bulloch, Secret Service of the
Confederate States in Europe (2 vols., 1884), an efficient
agent's well-told story; C. E. Hunt, The Shenandoah (1867) ;
E. S. Maclay, History of the United States Navy (2 vols.,
1894); David D. Porter, Naval History of the Civil War
(1886) ; A. Roberts, Never Caught (1867), blockade run-
ning; J. Thomas Scharf, History of the Confederate States
Navy (1894); Raphael Semmes, Service Afloat (1887), a
record by the captain of the Alabama of the destruction
of American commerce; Arthur Sinclair, Two Years in the
''Alabama'* (1895); John Wilkinson, Narrative of a Block-
ade Runner (1877); H. W. Wilson, Iron-Clads in Action
(i897).
1865] AUTHORITIES 313
STATISTICAL AND TECHNICAL WORKS
W. F. Fox, Regimental Losses in the American Civil War
(1889); G. F, R. Henderson, The Science of War (1905),
chaps, viii.-xii., very important criticism by a scientific
soldier; Thomas L. Livermore, Numbers and Losses of the
Civil War in America (1901), the best authority on that
subject; Frederick Phisterer, Statistical Record of the Army
of the United States (1883); Robert C. Wood, The Con-
federate Hand-Book (1900). Semi-official in character are,
G. W. Cullum, Biographical Register of the U. S. Military
Academy at West Point (rev. ed., 4 vols., 1891-1901), and
J. H. S. Hamersly, Complete Regular Army Register (1880),
and General Register of the U. S. Navy and Marine Corps
(1882) combined in Complete Army and Navy Register, 1776
to 1887 (1888). General Cullum's work has particular
value as giving a minute and accurate record of the sta-
tions held by each West Point graduate ; but in using it it
mxust be remembered that in the case of Confederates the
record ceases at the date when they gave up their allegiance
to the Union.
SONGS AND BALLADS
Northern. — W. F. Allen, C. E. Ware, Lucy M. Garrison,
compilers, Slave Songs of the United States (1867), with
scholarly introduction by Professor Allen; Ledyard Bell,
compiler, Pen Pictures of the Civil War, Lyrics, etc. (1866);
George H. Boker, Poems of the War (1864), productions of
merit; H. H. Brownell, War Lyrics and Other Poems (1866);
by a man of genius who saw service in the navy; Frances
J. Child, War Lyrics for Freemen (1862), interesting work
by the patriotic Harvard professor of English ; Copperhead
Minstrel, a Choice Collection of Democratic Poems and Songs
(1867) ; The Drum-Beat, songs with piano-forte accompani-
ment (1865); A. J. H. Duganne, Ballads of the War (1862);
J. Henry Hayward, editor, Poetical Pen Pictures of the War,
Selected from our Union Poets (1864); Frank Moore, editor.
Lyrics of Loyalty (1864); Selection of War Lyrics, with
314 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1861
illustrations on wood by F. O. C. Darley (1864); Soldiers*
and Sailors' Patriotic Songs and Hymns (1864) ; Trumpet of
Freedom (1864), martial part songs; War Ballads published
during the United States War of the Rebellion, sl collection of
two hundred and eighteen broadsides containing songs,
lyrics, and hymns, in Boston Public Library.
Southern. — F. D. Allan, compiler, A Collection of South-
ern Patriotic Songs, made during Confederate Times (1874);
W. L. Fagan, Southern War Songs (i8go, illustrated); The
Jack Morgan Songster, compiled by a Captain in General
Lee's Army (1864); Emily W. Mason, compiler. The South-
ern Poems of the War (1869); Frank Moore, Rebel Rhymes
and Rhapsodies (1864); W. Gilmore Simms, editor. War
Poetry of the South (1866); War Lyrics and Songs of the
South (London, Spottiswoode & Co., 1866); selection of
one hundred and eighty - one secession songs and poems,
of various dates, broadsides, in Boston Public Library;
H. M. Wharton, editor, War Songs and Poems of the South-
ern Confederacy (1904).
For southern music, consult W. R. Whittlesey, List of
Music of the South, 1860-1864 (Library of Congress, in
preparation).
North and South. — F. F. Browne, editor, Bugle Echoes,
a Collection of Poems of the Civil War, Northern and Southern
(1866); George Cary Eggleston, editor, American War
Ballads (2 vols., 1889), a collection general in character, but
largely made up of Civil War poetry ; Richard Grant White,
editor. Poetry Literary, Narrative, and Satirical, of the Civil
War (1866); H. L. Williams, editor. War Songs of the Blue
and Gray, as Sung by the Brave Soldiers of the Union and
Confederate Armies (1905); each volume of Frank Moore's
Rebellion Record contains a profuse compilation of the war
poetry of the year.
OFFICIAL CIVIL WAR RECORD
The War of the Rebellion, A Compilation of the Records
of the Union and Confederate Armies, a work of vast dimen-
sions carried through with great thoroughness and skill,
1865] AUTHORITIES 315
was begun before the end of the war, but long hampered
through want of means, till a general pressure from all
sections of the cotmtry caused Congress to provide for it.
A War Records Office was created and placed under the
direction of Adjutant-General E. D. Townsend, in 1877.
Officers of the army, Lieutenant-Colonel R. N. Scott,
Lieutenant-Colonel H. M. Lazelle, Major G. W. Davis,
Major George B. Davis, judge-advocate of the United States
army, and General F. C. Ainsworth, together with two civil-
ian experts, Leslie J. Perry and Joseph W. Kirtly, worked
diligently for many years, with the result that an enormous
body of interesting documents has been put into a shape
permanent and easily accessible. As regards the Federal
records, much care for their preservation was taken from
the very beginning of the war. Efforts were constantly
made also to supplement these by papers collected from
individual participants in the struggle.
The Confederate records underwent greater risks. That
they were in great part preserved in spite of all is especially
due to General Samuel Cooper (adjutant and inspector-
general C. S. A.), who, at the fall of Richmond in April,
1865, fleeing southward with Jefferson Davis, had in his
charge the dociunents of the Confederate government.
All these he delivered over to the United States for pres-
ervation upon his capture by Sherman at Charlotte, North
Carolina. The collection thus preserved was greatly in-
creased by the efforts of General Marcus J. Wright, C. S. A.,
who, now in the service of the United States, spent years
in an indefatigable search among the survivors of the "lost
cause " for papers that might be of value.
The result of all this labor is summed up substantially
as follows, in a document recently issued under authority
of the secretary of war:
The official records of the Union and Confederate
armies consist of four series, an atlas, and a general index,
namely :
[A] Series I. — Embraces the formal reports, both Union
and Confederate, of the first seizures of United States
3i6 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1861
property in the southern states, and of all military opera-
tions in the field, with the correspondence, orders, and
returns relating specially thereto, accompanied by an atlas.
It consists of vols.^I. to LIII., comprising one hundred
and eleven books, many of the volumes being in parts,
each part a book. (Serial Nos. i-iii.)
[B] Series 11. — Contains the correspondence, orders, re-
ports, and returns, Union and Confederate, relating to
prisoners of war and (so far as the military authorities were
concerned) to state and political prisoners. It consists of
eight books, designated as vols. I. to VIII. (or Serial Nos.
114 to 121).
[C] Series III. — Contains the correspondence, orders, re-
ports, and returns of the Union authorities (em.bracing
their correspondence with the Confederate officials) not
relating specially to the subjects of the first and second
series. It sets forth the annual and special reports of
the secretary of war, of the general-in-chief, and of the
chiefs of the several staff-corps and departments, the call
for troops, and the correspondence between the national
and several state authorities. This series consists of five
books, numbered as vols. I. to V. (or Serial Nos. 122
to 126).
[D] Series IV. — Exhibits the correspondence, orders, re-
ports, and returns of the Confederate authorities with
regard to the same subjects as those embraced in the
third series. It consists of three books, designated as
vols. I. to III. (or Serial Nos. 127 to 129).
[E] The Atlas. — Contains 178 plates, consisting of several
hundred maps of battle-fields of the war, routes of march
of the armies, plans of forts, etc., and a number of photo-
graphic views of prominent scenes, places, and objects.
[FJ In the preparation of the War Records the convenience
of the reader has been carefully consulted: each volume
is separately indexed, prefaced by a synopsis of events,
and by a table giving not only its own contents, but those
of all preceding volumes in the series.
A general index to the entire work, together with an
AUTHORITIES
317
appendix containing additions and corrections of errors
discovered in the several volumes after publication, con-
sists of one book, bearing only the serial number 130.
Series I., II., III., IV., the General Index, and the Atlas,
have been published, with the exception of vols. LIV. and
LV., and comprise 128 books exclusive of the Atlas.
LIV. and LV. (Serial Nos. 112 and 113) are reserved
for volumes to contain such additional matter as it may
be decided to publish in future, but they will not be issued
unless sufficient material to justify their publication shall
be secured. Therefore, as the publication now stands,
Series I. ends with vol. LIII. (Serial No. iii), and Series
II, begins with vol. I. (Serial No. 114).
This great body of docimients is well declared by Gen-
eral Cox, probably the best authority, to be by far the
most important source concerned with the Civil War, "a.
wonderful collection of historical material full of personal
life, as well as of formal documentary evidence." The
material, indeed, must be used with care : honest mistakes
are always inevitable ; papers, too, occur in which superior
officers declare the reports of subordinates to be false and
worthless — attempts to gloss over failure in the perform-
ance of duty, or to arrogate credit which does not belong
to them. As regards the leaders, the value of what they
have written is sometimes discounted from the fact that
the writers now seek to screen themselves from the conse-
quence of failure, now claim as their own honors which
they have not won, now allow their personal prejudices
and animosities to warp their statements. "Alas for his-
tory when made up from official reports!" exclaims Gen-
eral George H. Gordon in his From Brook Farm to Cedar
Mountain (249 note), in wrath over a report of his corps
commander. The reader must always bear in mind that
these agents in the great conflict were very human instru-
ments, whose imperfections inhere in the records they leave.
But the careful seeker can usually get at the truth. The
statements of rivals and enemies standing on pages near at
\ hand, can be set over against each other. The untruth of
3i8 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1861
the subordinate will be exposed in the relation of the com-
mander; and, on the other hand, the error of the com-
mander will be revealed in the accounts of his brigadiers
and colonels. In great part the mistakes and untruths
can be detected by striking a balance within the material
contained in the war records themselves. But, of course,
the scrupulous investigator will check what he here derives
by what may be found in the unofficial records, the vast
bodjT" of memoirs, reminiscences, discussions, memoranda
of every kind, with which the press has teemed since the
conflict began.
The world will no doubt coincide in the judgment of
General Cox, that while all has a value, the more formal
documents yield in interest to the terse, hurried despatches
and telegrams dictated among the harassments of a cam-
paign or amid the fire of battle — breathless utterances, as
it were, that bring one into the very smoke and flashing
of the engagement.
In 1894, under authority of the secretary of the navy,
was begun the publication of the Official Records of the
Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion,
under supervision of Lieutenant-Commander Richard Rush
and Mr. Robert H. Woods. The plan followed is the
same as that of the army records, nineteen volumes hav-
ing appeared up to the present time.
The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the
Rebellion, undertaken in 1870 under the supervision of
Surgeon - General J. K. Barnes, and finished in 1888, is
comprised within six quarto volumes profusely illustrated,
three of which, with a supplement, are medical, and three
are surgical. It is technical in character, and bears the
highest reputation as a scientific work.
The important Joint Committee on the Condttct of the
War, appointed in 1861, made successive reports, those
up to 1863 comprised in three parts, each part occupying
a volume; the succeeding ones also in three parts, with
two supplementary volumes. These records possess grfeat
interest, particularly the portions devoted to testimony.
1865] AUTHORITIES 319
With regard to many important events of the war the
principal actors and their subordinates gave evidence,
often imder rigorous cross-examination. Thus many facts
were brought out which otherwise might not have been
in evidence.
PUBLIC DOCUMENTS IN GENERAL
Northern. — In a great number of the documents pub-
lished by the legislative, executive, and judicial branches
of the government during the years 1861 to 1865 (the
years of the administration of Abraham Lincoln and of
the thirty-seventh and thirty-eighth Congresses), the in-
fluence of the Civil War is revealed. The nation's strug-
gle for existence, indeed, subordinates all else, and the
activity of the civil departments, as well as of the military,
is heavily shadowed by the ever-present crisis. For the
Federal side the records are complete. The daily debates
of both Senate and House in the thirty-seventh and thirty-
eighth Congresses are preserved in the Congressional Globe;
the texts of all statutes and resolutions passed are in the
Statutes at Large; the work of the various civil divisions of
the administration (state department, treasury, war, navy,
interior, post-office), in the Executive Documents relating
respectively to those divisions. The records of the Federal
supreme court were kept up from term to term. The
decrees of the district and circuit courts have recently been
gathered into a private publication known as Federal Cases.
See A. B. Hart, Foundations of American Foreign Policy,
275 et seq. (1901), for an account of the published decisions
of the Federal courts, supreme, circuit, and district.
Southern. — The civil records of the Confederacy have
been less perfectly available. The government is publish-
ing at the present moment (1906) the Journals of the Con-
federate Congress, that of the Senate being already complete.
The Confederate Statutes at Large (excepting perhaps the
acts of the closing session of Congress) were printed at the
time. James D. Richardson, in Messages and Papers of the
Confederacy (2 vols., Nashville, 1905), gives a selection of
i
320 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1861
the manifestoes of the Montgomery and Richmond govern-
ments, but the number is not large; the only approach to a
full collection of such documents is in the war department
at Washington. Exactly how much has escaped destruc-
tion cannot yet be told. The remnant is fragmentary, nor
are adequate lists available of the things preserved. But
see H. A. Morrison, List of Confederate Documents and of
Books published in the Confederacy (in preparation in the
Library of Congress) , which will go far to supply the lack.
STATE DOCUMENTS
Respecting the individual states both of the North and
South, there is for each one, during the years 1861 to
1865, both a military and a civil series of records; and
as in the case of the documents of the central governments,
so here, the struggle impresses itself on the civil records
as well as on those especially devoted to the war. Here
too, as regards the South, gaps occur, while the northern
states, better situated, show completeness. In this class,
of most interest through time to come, will be the reports
of the adjutant-generals, containing the regimental rosters.
NON-OFFICIAL COLLECTIONS OF SOURCES
Almost as interesting and important as the official
documents is the mass of material not published by the
government, coming from participants in, or eye-witnesses
of, the events described. The posts of the Loyal Legion,
Grand Army of the Republic, Confederate Veterans, and
various other societies of survivors, have printed, to a
large extent, the papers read before them, officers and
private soldiers thus putting on record their reminiscences.
Histories of corps, divisions, brigades, regiments, batteries,
are numerous, but, of course, differ much in value. The
publications of the Military Historical Society of Massa-
chusetts, comprising ten volumes and still in progress,
have especial value, containing besides the contributions
of accomplished officers, papers by such critics as John C.
Ropes, founder of the society. Albert Bushnell Hart, Amer-
AUTHORITIES
321
ican History told by Contemporaries (4 vols., 1 897-1 901),
contains in vol. IV. numerous extracts from sources on
military and civil affairs. The Battles and Leaders of the
Civil War (4 vols., 1888), made up of papers of soldiers
of high and low station. North and South, beautifully
illustrated by maps and pictures, is pronounced by G. F. R.
Henderson to be one of the most important military au-
thorities ever published. Frank Moore (editor), Rebellion
Record (13 vols., beginning with the year 1861), preserves
ephemeral utterances of the war-time, compiled from
newspapers, pamphlets, popular manifestoes of all kinds.
Each volume contains a compilation of songs and ballads
of the period: the collections of official reports are super-
seded by the fuller and more accurate publications of the
government. Appleton's Annual Cyclopcsdia (beginning
1 86 1, edited by W. T. Tenney), is an admirable digest,
made at the moment from contemporary accounts of
events; Campaigns of the Civil War (13 vols., 1 881-1890),
published by Scribners, are monographs, usually by par-
ticipating generals, and are of high authority: Great Com-
manders (1892), a series edited by General J. G. Wilson,
comprises biographies of soldiers, North and South, by
competent hands; The American Statesmen series, Hough-
ton, Mifflin & Co., publishers, comprises several biographies
of Civil War figures — Lincoln, Chase, Seward, Sumner, C.
F. Adams, Thaddeus Stevens — which cannot be passed over;
The American Commonwealth series, Houghton, Mifflin &
Co., publishers, still in progress, offers in each volume
chapters concerned with the relations of the state to the
war. The following volumes have appeared: California,
Connecticut, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Mich-
igan, Missouri, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Rhode
Island, Texas, Vermont, Virginia.
MILITARY BIOGRAPHIES AND REMINISCENCES
By writers in intimate relations with their subjects, or by
the subjects themselves, the following have especial value :
VOL. XXI. 21
322 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1861
Northern Combatants. — B. P. Poore, Ambrose E.
Burnside (1882); Benjamin F. Butler, Butler's Book (1892),
racy with the peculiarities of its author; J. D. Cox,
Military Reminiscences (2 vols., 1900), one of the very
best records ; M. Dix, John A. Dix (2 vols., 1883), a
high-minded War Democrat; Loyall Farragut, David G.
Farragut (1879); also Farragut, by A. T. Mahan (1892), a
work of especial value ; J. M. Hoppin, Life of Admiral Foote
(1874), a man of brave religious spirit; Ulysses S. Grant,
Personal Memoirs (2 vols., 1895), of the first importance
as a source, and very charming as revealing a simple and
honest personality; also Grant, by Badeau, Brooks, Church,
Dana, and Wilson, Garland, Knox, and Porter; F. A. Walker,
W. S. Hancock (1894), a great soldier portrayed by a writer
unusually accomplished, closely connected with him; also
Hancock, by his wife (1887) ; Herman Haupt, Reminiscences
(1901), the story of an eminent military engineer; W. B.
Hazen, Narrative of Military Service (1885), a good general of
division in the western army; J, Warren Keifer, Slavery and
Four Years of War (1900), a soldier of long and wide experi-
ence who later became speaker of the House ; R. M. Bache,
George Gordon Meade (1897), appreciations of a much-tried
and faithful soldier; also Meade, by I. R. Pennypacker (1901) ;
M. Cavanagh, Memoir of T. F. Meagher (1892), an Irish
patriot who took service for the Union; Whitelaw Reid,
Ohio in the War (1868), by a newspaper correspondent
famous later as editor and diplomatist; John M. Palmer,
Personal Reminiscences (1901), the record of a good citizen
and soldier; J. M. Schofield, Forty-six Years in the Army
(1897), memoirs of a teacher who became a general, record-
ing valiant service, but disputatious; Philip H. Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs (2 vols., 1902), direct and candid, with
unexpected touches of sensibility; William Tecumseh Sher-
man, Memoirs (2 vols., 1886), brusque, straightforward,
frankly confident of his own merit, concealing nothing;
Henry Coppee, George H. Thomas (1893); also Thomas, by
Donn Piatt and T. B. Van Home (1882) ; P. S. Michie, Life
and Letters of Emory Upton (1885), a young soldier of great
i865] AUTHORITIES 323
bravery and ability; Lew Wallace, An Autobiography (2
vols., 1906), a man of literary genius and delicate tastes,
who for a time played a soldierly part.
Southern Combatants. — A. Roman, Pierre G. T.
Beauregard (2 vols., 1884), a constant and valiant cham-
pion of the Confederacy exhaustively considered; J. A.
Wyeth, N, B. Forrest (1899), paints the career of a sol-
dier uninstructed but of great gifts; John B. Hood, Ad-
vance and Retreat (1880), the self -told record of a brave
but unfortunate leader; Joseph E. Johnston, Narrative
of Military Operations (1874), the story of one of the
ablest Confederate leaders, told by himself; also Johnston,
by R. N. Hughes (1893), and by B. P. Johnson (1891);
A. L. Long, Robert Edward Lee (1886), a work of high
military value upon the greatest soldier of the South; also,
Lee, by Cooke, Fitzhugh Lee, R. E. Lee, Jr., Trent, and
White; James Longstreet, From Manassas to Appomattox
(1903), of the highest value and interest; a so Mrs. James
Longstreet, Lee and Longstreet at High Tide (1904); J. S.
Mosby, War Reminiscences (1887), the most famous of bush-
whackers; Susan P. Lee, Memoirs of General W. N. Pendle-
ton (1893), a clergyman who became a soldier; W. M. Polk,
Leonidas Polk (2 vols., 1893), the memoirs of a sincere and
picturesque character; A. H. Noll, Rev. Dr. E. L. Quintard
(1905), a Confederate chaplain who became Bishop of
Tennessee; H. B. McClellan, /. E. B. Stuart (1885), the
career of the cavalry leader elaborately described; Richard
Taylor, Destruction and Reconstruction (1879), an indefati-
gable soldier presents a story with touches of sensibility
and literary grace; Joseph Wheeler, Campaigns of Wheeler
and His Cavalry (1899), from materials furnished by Gen-
eral Wheeler.
CIVIL BIOGRAPHIES AND REMINISCENCES
Northern Civilians. — C. F. Adams, Charles Francis
Adams (1900), an account of our foremost diplomat by
his son; James G. Blaine, Twenty Years in Congress (2
4
324 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1861
vols., 1884), I., chaps, xiii.-xxvi., clear, fair to opponents,
good-tempered, accurate; G. S. Boutwell, Reminiscences of
Sixty Years (1902), by a worthy veteran in statesmanship;
Albert Bushnell Hart, Salmon P. Chase (1899), restrained,
discriminating, marked by thorough knowledge; also,
Chase, by Schuckers, and by Warden; Mrs. C. Coleman,
John J. Crittenden (1871); Mrs. S. F. Hughes, John M.
Forbes (2 vols., 1899), a man without official position,
either civil or military, but very useful; Horace Greeley,
Recollections of a Busy Life (1868), reflecting the very
vortex of the political cyclone ; George W. Julian, Political
Recollections of War Time (1884), by a statesman of radical
anti- slavery views; E. D. Keyes, Fifty Years' Observations
(1884); John G. Nicolay and John Hay, Abraham Lincoln,
A History (10 vols., 1890), a monumental work by Lincoln's
private secretaries, written from the amplest knowledge by
men of great capacity: of the utmost merit, but un discrim-
inating in its commendation of Lincoln, who is always in
the right, whoever else may be wrong, and not judicial in
its attitude towards the South; also, Abraham Lincoln, by
Arnold, Elbridge Brooks, Noah Brooks, Carpenter, Coffin,
Dana, Hapgood, Hemdon, Lamon, Morse, Raymond, Rice,
Rothschild, Carl Schurz, and Ida M. Tarbell; A. G. Riddle,
Recollections of War Time (1895), good pictures of the life of
a congressman; F. W. Seward, William H. Seward at Wash-
ington (1891); Frederick Bancroft, Life of William H. Sew-
ard ( 2 vols., 1900), marked by candor and careful scholar-
ship ; also, Seward, by T. K. Lothrop ; John Sherman, Recol-
lections of Forty Years (1895), one of the most experienced
and meritorious of the statesmen of the period; George C.
Gorham, Edwin M. Stanton (2 vols., 1899), an adequate
picture of the great war secretary; also, Stanton, by F. A.
Flower (1905); Samuel M. McCall, Thaddeus Stevens (1899),
the leader of the House in the thirty-seventh and thirty-
eighth Congresses, portrayed by a sympathetic hand; also,
Stevens, by E. B. Callender (1882) ; Moorfield Storey, Charles
Sumner (1902), the leader of the Senate in the thirty-seventh
and thirty - eighth Congresses, symjDathetically portrayed;
4
i865] AUTHORITIES 325
also, Simmer, by E. L. Pierce (4 vols., 1877-1893); T. W.
Barnes, Thurlow Weed (1883), an account of a figure not in
the forefront, but exercising great influence.
Southern Civilians. — Varina Howell Davis, Jefferson
Davis (1890), the record of an affectionate wife; also,
Jefferson Davis, by Alfriend and E. A. Pollard; H, D.
Capers, Life and Times of C. G. Memminger (1893), a well-
disposed man set to cope with impossible tasks; H. Cleve-
land, Alexander H. Stephens (1866), a picture of perhaps
the ablest of the Confederate statesmen; also, Stephens
by Browne and Johnston; P. A. Stovall, Robert Toombs
(1892); L. G. Tyler, Letters and Times of the Tylers (1884-
1885); J. W. DuBose, Life of William L. Yancey (1892), a
plausible statesman active in Europe as well as in America.
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
Northern War Experience. — H. V. Boynton, Chatta-
nooga and Chickamauga (1891); H. V. Boynton, Sherman's
Historical Raid (1875), severe criticism of Sherman, judged
unfavorably by Cox; Junius H. Browne, Fonr Years in
Secessia (1865), a war correspondent; as is also C. C. Coffin,
My Days and Nights on the Battle-field (1887) ; Warren Lee
Goss, Recollections of a Private (1890) ; J. V. Hadley, Seven
Months a Prisoner (1898) ; T. W. Higginson, editor. Harvard
Memorial Biographies (2 vols., 1866), lives of Harvard men
who died in the service in various positions, from that of
general to the rank and file, written by comrades: pages
full of pathos and heroism; J. K. Hosmer, The Thinking
Bayonet (1865) ; A. B. Isham, Prisoners of War and Military
Prisons (1890); C. McCarthy, Detailed Minutice of a Sol-
dier's Life (1882) ; A. K. McClirre, Lincoln and Men of War
Time (1892), by an active newspaper man closely associated
with leading characters; J. McElroy, Anders onville, a Story
of Rebel Military Prisons (1879) ; George Ward Nichols, The
March to the Sea (1865), vivid description ; George F. Noyes,
The Bivouac and the Battlefield (1863), has to do with cam-
paigns in the East; Personal Narratives of Events in the
326 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR [1861
War of the Rebellion (5 vols., 1880), by private soldiers and
sailors, published by Rhode Island Historical Society ; George
Alfred Townsend, Campaigns of a Non-Comhatant (1866),
by a war correspondent; Frank Wilkeson, Recollections of
a Private Soldier (1887), makes real the pains and priva-
tions.
Southern War Experience. — Interesting accounts of
experiences undergone by minor characters are : Heros
von Borcke, Memoirs of the Confederate War for Inde-
pendence (1866), by a German soldier of fortune in the
army of Lee; Mrs. Mary Boykin Chesnut,. Diary from
Dixie (1905), lively, brilliant, pathetic; John Esten Cooke,
Wearing the Gray (1867); John Esten Cooke, Hilt to Hilt
(187 1 ), the Shenandoah cam.paign of 1864; F. E. Daniel,
Recollections of a Rebel Surgeon (1899) ; A. S. Dunlop, Lee's
Sharpshooters (1899); George Cary Eggleston, A Rebel's
Recollections (1905), a bright and entertaining' story of
service in a subordinate station; E. S. Ellis, Camp-Fires of
General Lee (1886); Miss Mary A. H. Gay, Life in Dixie
during the War (1892), concerned with Atlanta and its
neighborhood; Harry Gilmor, Four Years in the Saddle
(1866); Miss P. A. Hague, A Blockaded Family (1888), a
good account of plantation life in war-time; J. W. Headley,
Confederate Operations in Canada and New York (1906),
describes the secret machinations and attempts of Con-
federates in the North; J. B. Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary (2 vols., 1866), experiences of a Richmond official;
Sarah L. Jones, Life in the South (1863), by a blockaded
British subject; General Dabney H. Maury, Recollections
of a Virginian (1894); Mrs. Judith B. McGuire, Diary of a
Southern Refugee (1865), good pictures, especially of Rich-
mond life in war-time; J. Scott, Partisan Life with Colonel
J. S. Mosby (1867); Mrs. Susan Dabney Smedes, A South-
ern Planter (1899), paints plantation life near Vicksburg;
My Cave Life in Vicksburg by a Lady (1864), a woman's
experience during the siege; G. M. Sorrel, Recollections of
a Confederate Staff -Officer (1905), went through the war by
the side of Longstreet ; R. Stiles, Four Years Under Marse
1865] AUTHORITIES 327
Robert (1903), record of a Yale graduate who served in
a subordinate station; W. H. Taylor, Fotir Years with Lee
(1878), a record of intimate association; E. L. Wells,
Hampton and His Cavalry in 1864 {i8gg); W. Wilson, Life
in the Confederacy (1887), by an alien; J. S, Wise, The End
of an Era (1899), a bright youth's experience.
NEWSPAPERS
Files of especial interest among the northern papers are
those of the New York Tribune, New York Times, New
York Herald, and New York Evening Post ; Boston Adver-
tiser and Boston Journal ; Springfield Republican ; Chicago
Tribune and Chicago Times ; the La Crosse Democrat
("Brick" Pomeroy, editor); the Louisville Journal; the
Cincinnati Times : among southern papers, the Richmond
Whig, Richmond Examiner, and Richmond Despatch; the
Charleston Mercury ; the New Orleans Picayvme.
INDEX
Adams, C. F., success, 252;
bibliography, 323.
Adams, C. F., Jr., on Sherman's
and Sheridan's depredations,
237. 238.
Agassiz, Louis, in war-time, 266.
Agriculture, southern war-time,
58, 276; northern war-time,
254; colleges subsidized, 257.
Ainsworth, F. C, work on War
Records, 315.
Alabama, Semmes's plan of
operation, 178; cruise, 178;
in neutral ports, 179; num-
ber of captures, 179; sunk,
179; bibliography, 312.
Albemarle, Confederate ram,
destroyed, 172.
Alexandria, Confederate cruiser,
182.
Allatoona battle, 203.
Allison, W. B., enters Congress,
73-
Amendments. See Thirteenth.
Amnesty, Lincoln's proclama-
tion, 136.
Anderson, Adna, supplies for
Sherman's army, 112.
Anderson, R. H., leaves Early,
191.
Anderson, Robert, raises flag
over Sumter, 302.
Andersonville. See Prisoners
of war,
Appomattox campaign, pursuit
of Lee, 294; surrender, 295-
297; effect in North, 297, 302.
Arbitrary arrests, Vallandig-
ham case, 4-8, 10, 11; Bum-
side's order, 4; proclama-
tion of 1862, 5; Curtis on, 6;
act of 1863, 6; suppression
of Chicago Times, 7 ; Lin-
coln's attitude, 10, 11; popu-
lar attitude, 124; bibliog-
raphy, 311.
Archer as commerce-destroyer,
181.
Arkansas, military governor
and loyal government, 135;
abolishes slavery, 223.
Army. See Confederate army,
Union army.
Army of Cumberland. See
Rosecrans, Thomas.
Army of James. See Butler
(B. F.), Ord.
Army of Northern Virginia.
See Lee (R. E.).
Army of Ohio. See Bumside,
Schofield.
Army of Potomac. See Grant
(U. S.), Meade.
Army of Tennessee. See Mc-
Pherson, Sherman (W. T.).
Arnold, I. N., and suppression
of Chicago Times, 7; on thir-
teenth amendment, 126.
Ashley, J. M., and thirteenth
amendment, 124, 127, 221,
Atlanta campaign, Sherman's
task, 107; his force, 108;
Johnston's force, 108; Sher-
man and Johnston contrast-
330 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR
ed, 109; Federal line of com-
munication, 110- 112, 119;
Federal advance, 112; anal-
ogy to Virginia campaign,
113, 119; Rome, 113; Cass-
ville, 114; New Hope Church,
114; losses, 114, 117, 121;
Federal danger, 115; John-
ston's policy of retreat, 115,
118, 119; Kenesaw Moun-
tain, 115-117; morale of ar-
mies, 118; Hood supersedes
Johnston, 118; Peach - Tree
Creek, 120; battle of Atlanta,
120; Ezra Church, 120; Stone-
man's raid, 121; attempt to
cut off Atlanta, 121; capture
of Atlanta, 201 ; depopulation
and destruction of Atlanta,
202; Hood on Sherman's
communications, 203,
Augur, C. C, command at
Washington, 82.
Averell, W. W., in West Vir-
ginia (1864), 94; junction with
Himter, i o i ; and pursuit of
Early, 187; Moorefield, 188.
Bailey, Joseph, rescues Red
River expedition, 80.
Baird, Absalom, Chickamauga,
38; Missionary Ridge, 53.
Ballads, bibliography of war-
time, 313, 314.
Banks, Nathaniel, and Mobile,
77; Texas campaign (1863),
7 7 ; preparation for Red River
campaign, 77, 78; and sub-
ordinates, 79; failure of cam-
paign, 79-81; virtually su-
perseded, 81.
Banks, tax on state notes, 17,
130, 224. See also National
banks.
Barlow, F. C, Spottsylvania,
92; Cold Harbor, loi; in
pursuit of Lee, 295.
Barnes, J. K., Medical and
Surgical History, 318.
Barter in Confederacy, 21, 278,
Bates, Edward, resigns, 162 ; and
Peirpoint government, 225.
Beauregard, P. G. T., goes to
Virginia, 87; and Butler, 95-
97; commands in the West,
203; bibliography, 323.
Beecher, H. W., in war-time,
263; at Fort Sumter, 302.
Bellows, H. W., Sanitary Com-
mission, 67, 261.
Belmont, August, in Democrat-
ic convention, 155.
Benjamin, J. P., as cabinet of-
ficer, 272; on negro soldiers,
291.
Bentonville battle, 236.
Bermuda Hundred, Butler at,
96, 97.
Bingham, J. A., not in Con-
gress (1864), 72.
Biographies of Civil War
period, military, 321-323;
civil, 323-325.
Blaine, J. G., enters Congress,
73; bibliography, 323.
Blair, F. P., Sr., career, 158;
active Unionism, 158; Rich-
mond mission, 227,
Blair, F. P., Jr., in Congress
and field, 158; and Fremont,
159; offends Chase, 159;
march to the sea, 205.
Blair, Montgomery, as cabinet
officer, 159; influence, 159;
and Fremont, 159; and H.
W. Davis, 159; resignation
requested, 161.
Blockade, effect on southern
life, 58; fleet, 163; divisions,
164; important points, 164;
task of blockaders, 164; de-
velopment of blockade-run-
ning, 165; efficiency, 165;
number of runners taken,
165; gains of blockade-run-
ning, 165; bibliography, 312.
Blow, H. T., and Lincoln's re-
construction policy, 138.
INDEX
331
Bonds, issue of five-twenties
(1863), 14; Confederate, 19;
loan act of 1864, 128; ten-
forties, 128; compound-in-
terest notes, 129; loan act of
1865, 224. See also Debt.
Booth, J. W., assassinates Lin-
coln, 303.
Border states, election of 1862,
145-
Boutwell, G. S., internal-reve-
nue commissioner, 15; on
thirteenth amendment, 126,
222; and Lincoln's recon-
struction policy, 138; bibliog-
raphy, 324.
Bowles, Samuel, as war editor,
69.
Bragg, Braxton, as a general,
28; reinforcements, 29, 32;
manoeuvred out of Chat-
tanooga, 29; permits Federal
concentration, 3 1 ; Chicka-
mauga, first day, 32; second
day, 33-40; besieges Chat-
tanooga, 44, 49; dissensions,
45-47; Brown's Ferry, 47;
divides army, 48; force, 50;
battle of Chattanooga, 51-
55; chief of staff, 107, 270.
Brannan, J. M., Chickamauga,
35. 38.
Breckinridge, J. C, Chicka-
mauga, 34; position before
Chattanooga, 50; battle, 52,
53-
Breckinridge, R. J. , speech in Re-
publican convention (1864),
ISO-
Bright, John, and CivilWar, 252.
Bristoe Station, affair at, 84.
Brooke, J. M., service to Con-
federacy, 62, 184.
Brooklyn, battle of Mobile Bay,
168-170; and Sumter, 176.
Brooks, Phillips, in war-time,
'263.
Brough, John, campaign for
governor, 9.
Brown, J. E., and Sherman,
206.
Browne, C. F., as humorist, 261.
Brownell, H. H., "Fight in
Mobile Bay," 263.
Brown's Ferry, Tennessee, affair
at, 47.
Bryant, W. C, in war-time,
265.
Bryce, B. W., as paymaster-
general, 259.
Buchanan, Franklin, com-
mands Tennessee, 168; Mo-
bile Bay, 170, 171; surren-
ders, 171.
Buckner, S. B., reinforces Bragg,
29; retires before Burnside,
48.
Buell, D. C, refuses subor-
dinate command, 85.
Bulloch, J. D., purchases Shen-
andoah, 183.
Burnside, A. E., Order No. 38,
4; trial of Vallandigham, 5,
7; justification, 5, 6; oc-
cupies Knoxville, 27, 48;
Longstreet sent against, 48;
failure of Longstreet 's ex-
pedition, 55, 56; in Vir-
ginia campaign, 86; Wilder-
ness, 89; Petersburg mine,
104; bibliography, 322.
Butler, B. F., force (May,
1864), 86; responsibility for
failure, 87; and his subordi-
nates, 94, 96; part in Grant's
plan, 95; begins well, 95; re-
fuses to attack Petersburg,
96; "bottled up," 97; and
vice-presidential nomination,
153; and Peirpoint, 225; fail-
ure at Fort Fisher, 235; bib-
liography, 322.
Cabinet, Republican platform
on Lincoln's, 152; changes in
Lincoln's, 160-162.
Campbell, J. A., Hampton Con-
ference, 228.
332 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR
Canada, Confederate opera-
tions from, 218; bibliography
of operations, 326.
Canby, E. R., supersedes Banks,
8 1 ; and Louisiana loyal gov-
ernment, 225; receives sur-
render of Taylor, 297.
Carleton, J. H., command in
New Mexico, 82.
Cavalry, development, 97.
Cedar Creek battle, 195-198;
losses, 198.
Chamberlain, J. L., teacher,
258.
Chandler, D. T., on Anderson-
ville, 244.
Chandler, Zachariah, and Lin-
coln's reconstruction policy,
137; and veto of Davis's bill,
142; and loyal government
of Louisiana, 227.
Chapin, E. H., in war-time, 263.
Charleston, attempt to reduce,
24; Federal hatred, 233;
evacuated, 235.
Chase, S. P., and greenbacks,
13; and loan of 1863, 14;
and national banks, 16; es-
timates for 1864, 128; Con-
gress supports, 128; issue of
ten-forties, 128; of compound
interest notes, 129; presiden-
tial ambition, 146; on lack of
administrative policy, 146;
Lincoln's attitude, 147; can-
didacy (1864), 147, 148;
personal relations with Lin-
coln, 157; repeated resigna-
tions, 157, 160; and Blairs,
159; and patronage, 160; res-
ignation accepted, 160; resig-
nation and Federal finances,
160; achievement as finan-
cial secretary, 161; chief-
justice, 161 ; administers oath
to Lincoln, 231 ; bibliography,
324-
Chattanooga, Bragg manoeu-
vred out of, 29; Rosecrans
occupies, 30; Federals re-
treat to, 39; Hooker rein-
forces, 42 ; Thomas com-
mands, 43; Grant at, 44;
positions of opposing forces,
44, 49, 50; Federal morale,
44, 47; Sherman ordered to,
45, 49; dissensions in Con-
federate army, 45-47; open-
ing of supply line, 47 ; Con-
federate army divided, 48;
forces, 50; Grant's plan, 51;
battle, Thomas's first move-
ment, 51; Sherman's attack,
51, 53; Lookout Mountain,
52; Missionary Ridge, 52;
losses, 53 ; impressiveness of
battle, 53-55; bibliography,
325.
Cheatham, B. F., Nashville
campaign, 210.
Chesnut, Mary B., war pict-
ures, 60; on Hood after de-
feat, 289.
Chicago Times, suppression, 7.
Chickamauga campaign, Bragg
manoeuvred out of Chat-
tanooga, 26-30; separation of
Federal corps, 30; Bragg
neglects opportunity, 3 1 ;
Federal concentration, 3 1 ;
topography of field, 3 1 ; posi-
tions and forces, 32; first
day, 3 2 ; arrival of Long-
street, 32; Federal council,
33; second day, attack on
Thomas, 34; rout of Federal
right, 35-38; Thomas's stand,
38; losses, 39; result, 40;
criticism of Bragg, 45; bibli-
ography, 325.
Christian Commission, 68.
Civil service, Lincoln and vote
of office-holders, 219.
Civil War, results to end of
1863, 57; importance of elec-
tion of 1864, 119, 145, 154,
156; destruction of private
property considered, 177,
INDEX
333
237-240; deaths, 304; cost,
304; effect, 305; bibliography
of period, 307-327; general
histories, 307; special his-
tories, 308-310; of consti-
tutional questions, 310; of
foreign affairs, 311; statis-
tical and technical works,
313; songs and ballads, 313;
Official Records, 3 1 4-3 1 9 ;
other public documents, 319;
state documents, 320; col-
lections of sources, 320;
biographies and reminis-
cences, 321-325; personal
experiences, 325-327; news-
papers, 327.
Clarence as commerce-destroyer,
181.
Clark, Daniel, on thirteenth
amendment, 126.
Cleburne, Patrick, Chicka-
mauga, 34; Atlanta, 120;
Franklin, killed, 214.
Cobb, Howell, on Anderson-
ville, 244.
Cobden, Richard, and Civil
War, 252.
Cochrane, John, nominated for
vice-president, 149.
Coeducation, collegiate, 257.
Cold Harbor battle, 100.
Colleges, northern, during Civil
War, 257; congressional aid,
257; southern, during war,
278.
Collins, Napoleon, captures
Florida, 182.
Collyer, Robert, in war-time,
263.
Columbia, burning of, 234.
Commerce, effect of Confed-
erate cruisers on merchant
marine, 174, 179; precedent
of depredations, 176; north-
ern war-time, 253; Confed-
erate, 273-275. See also
Blockade, Railroads.
Commissary department, ad-
ministration of northern, 43 ;
of southern, 270.
Committee on Conduct of War,
reports, 318.
Compoimd-interest notes, 129.
Confederate army, strength
(May, 1864), 81; administra-
tion, 270; commissariat, 271;
provost-marshal department,
272; recruiting of negroes,
291; number paroled (1865),
297; bibliography, 313, 326;
Official Records, 314-318.
See also campaigns and com-
manders by name.
Confederate congress, character,
272; repudiation, 277; negro
soldiers, 291; bibliography,
319-
Confederate navy, no successes
in warfare, 1 63 ; damage by
cruisers, 163, 173, 174; Mobile
Bay, 167-172; destruction of
Albemarle, 172; in western
waters, 173; cruisers in neu-
tral ports, 175; Semmes, 175;
career of Sumter, 176, 177;
precedent for depredations of
cruisers, 176; career of Ala-
bama, 178-180; of Florida,
180-182 ; of Lieutenant Read,
181; of other cruisers, 182;
of Shenandoah, 183 ; bibliogra-
phy,3i2; Official Records, 3 18.
Confederate States, and Union
men, 18; finances, 19-22,
276-278; cleft apart, 57; war
attitude (1864), 269; ad-
ministration, 272; bibliog-
raphy of foreign affairs,
308; of constitutional ques-
tion, 310, 311; of finance,
312; records, 315, 319. See
also South.
Congress, thirty - seventh : rep-
resentation from seceding
states, 134, 135; grant for ag-
ricultural colleges, 257; bibli-
ography, 318, 319.
334 OUTCOME OF. THE CIVIL WAR
Thirty-eighth: speaker, 72;
complexion, 72; prominent
men, 72-74; task, 74; revives
lieutenant - generalship, 74;
military measures, 75, 132,
224; thirteenth amendment,
124-127, 221; loan of 1864,
128; tax acts, 129, 130, 224;
national banks, 130, 224;
paper money, 131; specula-
tion in gold, 131; credit for
financial measures, 132; non-
war acts, 133; reception
of Lincoln's reconstruction
policy, 137; Davis's recon-
struction bill, 139-141; Lin-
coln pockets it, 141; control
over slavery questioned, 142 ;
second session, message, 220;
Fessenden's financial sugges-
tions, 223 ; exhausting labors,
224; Davis's nevv^ reconstruc-
tion bill, 226; loyal gov-
ernment of Louisiana not
recognized, 226; bibliogra-
phy, 318, 319.
Conkling, Roscoe, not in Con-
gress (1864), 72; Fry con-
troversy, 259, 260.
Conscription, northern resist-
ance, 8; New York riots, 9;
enforced, 76; amended act,
224.
Constitution, war powers, 123;
thirteenth amendment, 124-
127; bibliography of ques-
tions, 310. See also Emanci-
pation, Reconstruction.
Cooke, Jay, and war finances,
14.
Cooper, Samuel, and Confeder-
ate records, 315.
Copper, discoveries, 255.
Copperheadism, growth, 3 ;
Vallandigham case, 4-8; ori-
gin of name, 4; suppression
of Chicago Times, 7.
Corruption, extent of northern
war-time, 259, 260.
Corse, J. M., at Allatoona, 203.
Cotton, Confederate depend-
ence on, 19.
Couch, D. N., command in
Pennsylvania, 82.
Cox, J. D., on Swinton, 70;
Franklin, 212, 214; on Sher-
man's depredations, 238; on
War Records, 317; bibliog-
raphy, 322.
Cox, S. S., at Mount Vernon
meeting, 4; at Vallandig-
ham's trial, 7.
Craven, T. M., goes down with
Tecumseh, 169.
Crittenden, J. J., bibliography,
324.
Crittenden, T. L., in campaign
before Chickamauga, 28, 29;
occupies Chattanooga, 30;
Chickamauga, first day, 32;
in council, 33; second day,
34, 38; displaced, 43-
Crook, George, in West Vir-
ginia (1864), 94; junction
with Hunter, loi; and pur-
suit of Early, 187; and Sheri-
dan, 189; Fisher's Hill, 193;
Cedar Creek, 196.
Cruisers. 5^^ Confederate navy.
Cushing, W. B., destroys Albe-
marle, 172.
Cushing cut out by Read, 181.
Custer, G. A., as cavalry officer,
97, 189; Cedar Creek, 198;
final Valley operations, 199,
Daguerreotype invented, 255.
Dahlgren, J. A., before Charles-
ton, 24.
Dalton battle, 112.
Dana, C. A., and Rosecrans, 27;
at Chickamauga, 3 7 ; as Lin-
coln's agent at front, 41, 69;
on conditions in Shenandoah,
188.
Dana, R. H., on Grant, 74.
Davis, G. B., work on War
Records, 315.
INDEX
335
Davis, G. W., work on War
Records, 315.
Davis, Garrett, and thirteenth
amendment , 125.
Davis, H. W., enters Congress,
73; and Lincoln, 139; recon-
struction bill, 140, 141; mani-
festo, 143; new bill, 226.
Davis, J. C., Chickamauga, 38;
march to the sea, 205.
Davis, Jefferson, and Bragg, 28;
visits Bragg's army, 46; and
plan to invade Tennessee,
107; removes Johnston, 118;
visits Hood's army, 203 ; and
Blair's mission, 227; and
Hampton Conference, 228; as
president, 270; and army
officers, 270; religion, 280;
captured, 297; bibliography,
325.
Dawes, H. W., and Davis's re-
construction bill, 226.
Debt, estimated increase (1864),
128; reconstruction and re-
pudiation of southern, 140;
size of Federal (1864), 220;
Lincoln's recommendation,
220. See also Bonds, Paper
money.
Democratic party. See Copper-
headism, Elections.
Dennison, William, in Repub-
lican convention, 151; post-
master-general, 161.
Dickens, Charles, and Civil
War, 252.
Dickinson, D. S., and vice-
presidential nomination, 153.
Disloyal societies. See Copper-
headism.
Dix, J. A., command in New
York, 82; bibliography, 322.
Dixon, James, and Lincoln's
reconstruction policy, 138.
Dodge, G. M., on march to
Chattanooga, 49; invalided,
201.
Draft. See Conscription.
Dwight, William, Cedar Creek,
196.
Early, J. A., sent to Shenan-
doah Valley, 102; invades
Maryland, 103; Monocacy,
103; threatens Washington,
104; pursuit, 186; Kernstown,
187; sends McCausland on
raid, 187; force against Sheri-
dan, 189; retreat and ad-
vance, 190; Opequon Creek,
191; Fisher's Hill, 192; rallies
his force, 193; Cedar Creek,
195-199; after Cedar Creek,
199.
Economic conditions, southern
war-time, 58; scarcity in
South, 61; development of
industries, 62-64, 276; north-
em prosperity, 65, 253 ; crops,
254; wages and prices, 254;
development of natural re-
sources, 255; utilization of
inventions, 255. See also
Agriculture, Commerce, Fi-
nances, Manufactures.
Education, in North, common
schools, 256; normal, 256;
high schools, 257; colleges,
257; state universities and
coeducation, 257; Federal
grant, 257; effect of war on
colleges, 258; in South, 278.
Eggleston, G. C, on Confed-
erate paper money, 2 1 ; de-
spairs of southern success,
269; on southern commis-
sariat, 271; on prices, 277;
on behavior of negroes, 288.
Elections, 1864 : thirteenth
amendment as issue, 127,
150-152; importance to pros-
ecution of war, 145, 152, 154;
dependence on military suc-
cess, 145, 154; Chase's can-
didacy, 146-148; Grant's
candidacy, 148; nomination
of Fremont, 149; Republican
336 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR
convention, 149; R. J, Breck-
inridge's speech, 150; dele-
gations from seceding states,
151; platform, 1 51-153; Lin-
coln renominated, 153; nomi-
nation for vice-president,
153; Democratic convention,
154; "war a failure" issue,
156, 218; Democratic nomi-
nations, 156; state elections,
219; Republican success, 219.
Emancipation, thirteenth
amendment, 124-127, 221;
in Davis's reconstruction bill,
140; right of Congress, 142;
steps, 222, 223; by direct
state action, 223; Lincoln
proposes compensation, 229.
Emerson, R. W., Newell 's
parody, 262; on Lincoln's
re-election, 265.
Emory, W. H., under Sheridan,
188; Fisher's Hill, 193; Cedar
Creek, 196.
Erlanger, Emil, and Confed-
erate bonds, 19.
Ether, discovery and utiliza-
tion, 255.
Ewell, R. S., in Virginia cam-
paign, 87; Wilderness, 89;
Sailor's Creek, captured, 295.
Ezra Church battle, 120.
Farragut, D. G., preparation
against Mobile, 167; fleet,
168; passage of Fort Morgan,
168-170; fight with Tennes-
see, 170-172; losses, 172; bib-
liography, 322.
Fessenden, W. P., and tax on
state - bank notes, 1 7 ; and
veto of Davis's reconstruc-
tion bill, 142; secretary of
treasury, 160, 223.
Finances, improved condition
of northern, 15, 127; popular
support, 15, 66; Confederate
dependence on cotton, 19;
requirements and means
(1864), 128; credit for war,
132 ; and resignation of Chase,
160; Chase's achievement,
161; Fessenden as secretary,
223; his recommendations,
223; cost of Civil War, 304;
bibliography, 312. See also
Banks, Bonds, Debt, Money,
Paper Money, Taxation.
Fisher, Fort, Butler's attack,
235; captured, 235.
Fisheries, Confederate depreda-
tions, 184.
Fisher's Hill battle, 192.
Five Forks battle, 293.
Florida, campaign (1864), 77;
delegates to Republican con-
vention (1864), 151-
Florida, career, 180-182.
Foote, A. H., bibliography, 322.
Forbes, J. M., patriotic work,
261; bibliography, 324.
Foreign affairs, danger from,
ceases, 251; bibliography,
311. 5^^ aZi-o nations by name.
Forrest, N. B., and Sherman's
Meridian expedition, 106;
raid to Ohio River, no; Fort
Pillow, no; Nashville cam-
paign, 210; exploit on Ten-
nessee River, 210; Franklin,
212; Selma, 236; bibliogra-
phy, 323-
Forster, W. E., and Civil War,
252.
Franklin, W. B., Red River
campaign, 79; suggested for
Valley command, 188.
Franklin battle, 212-214.
Freedmen. See Negroes.
Freeman, E. A., and Civil War,
252.
Fremantle, A. J. L., on southern
travel, 174.
Fremont, J. C, nomination
(1864), 149; withdraws, 219.
Fry, J. B., as provost-marshal-
general, 8; Conkling con-
troversy, 259, 260.
INDEX
337
Gaines, Fort, 167; siirrenders,
172.
Garfield, J. A., Chickamauga,
38; enters Congress, 73;
opposes lieutenant-general-
ship, 74; and Lincoln's re-
construction policy, 138; on
thirteenth amendment, 222;
teacher, 258.
Garrison, W. L., in war-time,
263.
Gay, Mary A. H., anecdote of
slave, 287.
Georgia, career, 183.
Getty, G. W., Wilderness, 90.
Gillmore, Q. A., before Charles-
ton, 24; Florida campaign,
78; imder Butler, 94, 96.
Gilmor, Harry, guerilla, 189.
Gladstone, W. E., and Civil
War, 252.
Gold, discoveries, 255. See also
Money.
Goodyear, Charles, vulcanized
rubber, 255.
Gordon, J. B., Spottsylvania,
93; Opequon Creek, 191;
Cedar Creek, 195, 196; Fort
Stedman, 292.
Granger, Gordon, Chickamauga,
38.
Grant, L. A., Cedar Creek, 197.
Grant, U. S., displaces Mc-
Clemand, 41 ; army dispersed,
42; assigned to Division of
Mississippi, 43 ; has Thomas
supersede Rosecrans, 43 ; at
Chattanooga, 44; opening of
supply line, 47; position of
forces, 50; plan, 51; battle,
51-55; and newspaper-men,
70; lieutenant-general, 74;
unimpressive, 74; and Sher-
man and McPherson, 75;
policy of concentration, 78;
position of forces (May,
1864), 82, 83; Sherman's ad-
vice, 83 ; accompanies Army
of Potomac, 84; and Meade,
VOL. XXI. — 22
85, 88; force in Virginia cam-
paign, 86; plan in Virginia,
87; advance, 88; Wilderness,
88-91; Spottsylvania, 91-93;
continues flanking movement,
93 ; and Butler's movement,
94-97; Sheridan's raid, 97-
99; North Anna River, 99;
Cold Harbor, 100; crosses the
James, loi ; failure to capture
Petersburg, 102; Petersburg
mine, 104; army deteriorates,
105; cause of failure, 105,
186; plan for Sherman, 107;
candidacy (1864), 148, 153 '»
and Valley command, 188;
orders destruction of Valley,
189, 238; failure to break
Lee's defence, 200; and march
to the sea, 204, 205, 209;
and Thomas at Nashville,
215; refuses to exchange
prisoners of war, 240, 243;
disappointment, 290; force
in final campaign, 292; Fort
Stedman, 292; conference,
293; final movements before
Petersburg, 293, 294; pur-
suit of Lee, 294; surrender of
Lee, 295-297; character, 298,
299; escapes assassination,
303; bibliography, 322.
Gray, Asa, on confidence of
North, 66.
Great Britain, and Confederate
cruisers, 175, 180, 181, 183,
184; improved attitude, 252.
Greeley, Horace, as war editor,
69 ; and Lincoln's reconstruc-
tion policy, 138; and nomina-
tion of Fremont (1864), 149;
bibliography, 324.
Gregg, D. M., as cavalry officer,
97-
Grimes, J. W., corruption in-
vestigation, 259.
Grote, George, and Civil War,
252.
Grover, Cuvier, Cedar Creek, 196.
338 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR
Grow, G. A., not in Congress
(1864), 73-
Habeas CORPUS. 5<7^ Arbitrary
arrests.
Hale, E. E., Man Without a
Country, 263.
Halleck, H. W., and Rosecrans,
2 5 ; chief of staff, 7 5 ; and
Charleston, 233.
Halstead, Murat, as war editor,
69.
Hamlin, Hannibal, why not
renominated, 153.
Hampton, Wade, Trevilian's
Station, 102; Bentonville,
236.
Hampton Conference, 228.
Hancock, W. S., return to com-
mand, 86; Wilderness, 89-
91; Spottsylvania, 92; Cold
Harbor, loi ; Petersburg, 102 ;
invalided, 103 ; bibliography,
322.
Hardee, W. J., and Bragg, 28,
46; at Mobile, 29; before
Chattanooga, 45, 49; battle,
51, 53; in Atlanta campaign,
108; New Hope Church, 114;
Atlanta, 120; escapes from
Savannah, 217; at Charles-
ton, 232, evacuates it, 235.
Hartford, battle of Mobile Bay,
168-172.
Hartranft, J. F., Knoxville, 55.
Harvard University during Civil
War, 257, 325.
Haupt, Herman, bibliography,
322.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, lack of
patriotism, 264.
Hay, John, on reception of Lin-
coln's reconstruction policy,
137; on Lincoln and Davis's
bill, 141.
Hayes, R. B., Cedar Creek, 196.
Hazen, W. B., bibliography, 322.
Heintzelman, S. P., command
in central West, 82.
Henderson, J. B., introduces
thirteenth amendment, 125.
Hendricks, T. A., in Senate, 74;
on thirteenth amendment,
126.
Hill, A. P., Bristoe Station, 84;
in Virginia campaign, 87;
Wilderness, 89, 90; Weldon
railroad, 103 ; killed, 294.
Hill, D. H., and Bragg, 28, 45;
Chickamauga, 34; teacher,
279.
Hoe, R. M., rotary press, 255.
Holland, J. G., in war-time,
262.
Holmes, O. W., in war-time,
265.
Holt, Joseph, and vice-presi-
dential nomination, 153.
Hood, J. B., Chickamauga,
wounded, 3 7 ; and plan to in-
vade Tennessee, 107; in
Atlanta campaign, 108; and
attack at Cassville, 114; con-
firmed by Polk, 116; super-
sedes Johnston in command,
118; attacks before Atlanta,
120; evacuates Atlanta, 201;
and depopulation of Atlanta,
202; on Sherman's com-
munications, 203; force for
Nashville campaign, 210; be-
gins advance, 211; Schofield
delays, 211; Spring Hill, 212;
Franklin, 212-215; before
Nashville, 215; battle of
Nashville, 216; force annihil-
ated, 216; after defeat, 289;
bibliography, 323.
Hooker, Joseph, sent to Chat-
tanooga, 42; Brown's Ferry,
47; position, 50; Lookout
Mountain, 52, 54; New Hope
Church, 114; resigns, 201.
Hooker, Samuel, and national-
banks act, 17.
Hotchkiss, Jed, Cedar Creek,
195-
Howard, O. O., sent West, 42;
INDEX
339
New Hope Church, 114; com-
mands Army of Tennessee,
120; march to the sea, 205,
208; in Carohna march, 236.
Howe, Ehas, sewing-machine,
255-
Howe, Julia W., on w^ar-time
luxur}-, 259; "Battle Hymn,"
263.
Hughes, John, and draft riots,
9-
Himter, David, in Shenandoah
Valley, advance, 10 1; re-
treat, 102; and pursuit of
Early, 187.
Htmter, R. M. T., Hampton
Conference, 228.
Hurlbut, S. A., commands at
Memphis, 45; and Louisiana
loyal government, 225.
Illinois Copperheadism, 4.
Immigration, act of 1864, 133.
Income tax act of 1864, 129.
Indiana, Copperheadism, 4 ;
Morgan's raid, 23.
Ingalls, Rufus, as commissary-
general, 43, 260.
IngersoU, E. C, on thirteenth
amendment, 126, 222.
Internal revenue, success, 15;
administration, 15; subjects
of taxation, 15; Confederate,
19; Federal, estimated rev-
enue (1864), 128; act of 1864,
129; popularity, 129; actual
receipts (1864), 220; act of
1865, 224.
Inventions, utilization during
war-time, 255.
Iowa, University of, coeduca-
tion, 257.
Iroquois and Sumter, 177.
Jackson, T. J., teacher, 279;
religion, 280.
Jenkins, Micah, Knoxville ex-
pedition, 48, 55; Wilderness,
killed, 91.
Johnson, Andrew, military gov-
ernor, 134; nominated for
vice-president, 153,
Johnson, Edward, Spottsyl-
vania, 93.
Johnson, Reverdy, in Senate,
74; and Lincoln's reconstruc-
tion policy, 138.
Johnston, J. E., and Bragg, 28;
and plan to invade Ten-
nessee (1864), 107; displaces
Bragg, 107; force in Atlanta
campaign, 108; character,
109; Dalton, 112; Resaca,
113; desire to attack at
Cassville, 114; New Hope
Church, 114; policy of re-
treat, 115, 118, 119; Kene-
saw Moimtain, 115, 117;
baptized by Polk, 117; re-
moved from command, 118;
about to attack, 119; re-
newed command against
Sherman, 232; Bentonville,
236; on southern transpor-
tation, 275; surrenders, 297;
bibliography, 323.
Jones, J. B., on Confederate
Congress, 273; on strait in
Richmond, 289; on recruit-
ing negroes, 291.
Julian, G. W., bibliography,
324-
Kasson, J. A., enters Congress,
73 ; on thirteenth amend-
ment, 222.
Kearsage- Alabama fight, 179.
Keifer, J. W., bibliography,
322.
Kenesaw Mountain battle, 115-
117.
Kerr, Orpheus C. See Newell
(R. H.).
Kershaw, J. B., sent to Shen-
andoah, 193; Cedar Creek,
196.
Kilpatrick, H. J., march to the
sea, 205.
340 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR
King, T. S., in war-time, 263.
Kirtly, J. W., work on War
Records, 315.
Knoxville, Burnside occupies,
27, 48; Longstreet sent
against, 48; failure of Long-
street's expedition, 55, 56.
Labor. See Wages.
Lackawanna, battle of Mobile
Bay, 171.
Law, E. M., Knoxville expedi-
tion, 55.
Lawrence, A. A., patriotic work,
261.
Lazelle, H. M., work on War
Records, 315.
Leavitt, H. H., and Vallandig-
ham case, 7.
Le Conte, John, service to Con-
federacy, 63,
Le Conte, Joseph, service to
Confederacy, 63 ; on south-
ern war attitude, 64; on
slavery, 288.
Lee, Fitzhugh, and Sheridan's
raid, 99; Trevilian's Station,
102; Five Forks, 293.
Lee, R. E., and newspaper-
men, 69; autumn campaign
(1863), 84; offers to retire
from command, 84; force
(May, 1864), 87; Wilderness,
88-91; exposes himself, 90,
93; Spottsylvania, 91-93;
North Anna River, 99; Cold
Harbor, 100; at Petersburg,
103; ability, 105, 186; and
plan to invade Tennessee,
107; impregnable defence,
200; increasing strait, 200;
commander - in - chief, 232,
291; and commissariat, 271;
religion, 280; genius recog-
nized, 291; and negro sol-
diers, 292 ; force in final cam-
paign, 292; plan, 292; Fort
Stedman, 292; final opera-
tions at Petersburg, 293,
294; evacuates, 294; flight,
294; surrender, 295-297;
character, 298, 299; bibliog-
raphy, 323.
Lee, S. D., Nashville campaign,
210; Franklin, 213.
Legal tender. See Paper money.
Lincoln, Abraham, military-
arrests proclamation, 5, 124;
and suppression of Chicago
News, 6; and Valandigham
case, 7, 10, 11; and Seymour,
8; political letter (1863), 11-
13; on reopening of Mis-
sissippi, 12 ; on negro soldiers,
1 2 ; and Rosecrans, 2 5 ; ap-
points military governors,
133-135; reconstruction proc-
lamation' (1863), ~ 137 1
its reception in Congress,
137; opposition to recon-
struction policy, 139, 141;
and H. W. Davis, 139;
pockets Davis's reconstruc-
tion bill, 141; proclamation
on veto, 143; advocates thir-
teenth amendment, 143, 220;
Wade-Davis manifesto, 143 ;
Chase on administration, 146;
and Chase, 147, 148, 157,
160; administration upheld,
152; platform on cabinet,
152; renominated, 153; on
renomination, 153; prepara-
tion for defeat, 154; requests
Blair's resignation, 161; other
cabinet changes, 162; and
march to the sea, 204; Sher-
man presents Savannah to,
216; re-elected, 219; conduct
during campaign, 219; and
pressure on office-holders, 219;
last annual message, 220; on
the debt, 220; peace terms,
221, 228; adheres to eman-
cipation, 221; and Peirpoint
government, 225; and Louis-
iana loyal government, 225;
and Blair's mission, 227, 228;
INDEX
341
Hampton Conference, 228;
and compensation for eman-
cipation, 229; second inaugu-
ration, 230; effect of burden
of war on, 249; and his cabi-
net, 250; appreciation of
humor, 261; Gettysburg ad-
dress, 263; Emerson on,
265; conference with Grant
and Sherman, 293 ; in Rich-
mond, 299; and Virginia
legislature, 300; last words on
reconstruction, 300-302; as-
sassinated, 303 ; mourning for,
304 ; savior of Union, 3 04 ; bib-
liography of administrations,
307-327; biographies, 324.
Literature, northern war-time,
humor, 261; orators, 263;
lyrics, 263; fiction, 263; at-
titude of great writers, 263-
268; southern war-time, 281 ;
bibliography of songs and
ballads, 313, 314-
Locke, D. R., as satirist, 261.
Logan, J. A., sent to supersede
Thomas, 215.
Longfellow, H. W., in war-time,
264; and Sumner, 265.
Longstreet, James, and Bragg,
28, 45, 46; reinforces Bragg,
29, 32; Chickamauga, posi-
tion, 33; routs Federal right,
36-38; Brown's Ferry, 47;
sent against Knoxville, 48;
failure of expedition, 55, 56;
rejoins Lee, 56, 87; Wilder-
ness, 89-9 1 ; wounded, 9 1 ;
and plan to invade Ten-
nessee, 107; and Early, 195;
in final campaign, 295; bib-
liography, 323.
Lookout Mountain. See Chat-
tanooga.
Louisiana, loyal government,
135, 226; abolishes slavery,
223 ; Senate and loyal govern-
ment, 226; Lincoln on rec-
ognition, 300-302.
Lovejoy, Owen, and Lincoln's
reconstruction policy, 138.
Lowell, C. R., as cavalry of-
ficer, 189 ; Cedar Creek, killed,
198.
Lowell, J. R., on Nasby, 262;
second series of Biglow
Papers, 267; edits North
American Review, 268; on
Lincoln's re-election, 268;
on surrender of Lee, 297.
Luxury, northern war-time,
258; societies to discourage,
258.
Lyell, Sir Charles, and Civil
War, 252, 305.
Lynchburg, Hunter before, 102.
McCausland, John, Pennsyl-
vania raid, 187; Moorefield,
188.
McClellan, G. B., nominated for
president, 154, 156; and " war
a failure " issue, 156; defeat-
ed, 219.
McClemand, J. B., displaced,
41.
McClure, A. K., as war editor,
69.
McCook, A. M., in campaign
before Chickamauga, 28, 29;
Chickamauga, first day, 32;
in council, 33; second day,
34, 38; displaced, 43.
McCormick, C. H., reaper, 255.
McLaws, Lafayette, Knoxville
expedition, 48, 55.
McNeil, J. H., guerilla, 189.
McPherson, J. B., commands at
Vicksburg, 45 ; commands
Army of Tennessee, 75; and
Grant, 75; under Sherman,
83 ; force in Atlanta cam-
paign, 108; Dalton, 112;
Resaca, 113; Peach - Tree
Creek, 120; Atlanta, killed,
120.
Maffitt, E. A., commands
Florida, 1 80.
OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR
Mahone, William, Petersburg
mine, 105.
Manufactures, war develop-
ment of southern, 62-64, 276;
northern war-time, 254.
March to the sea, Sherman pro-
poses, 204; risk, 204; Grant
acquiesces in, 205 ; force, 205 ;
equipment, 206; destruction,
206-208, 217; lack of violence,
208; unimpeded march, 208;
Milledgeville, 209; capture of
Savannah, 216; bibliography,
325.
Marcy, W. L., and Declaration
of Paris, 177.
Maryland abolishes slavery, 220,
223.
Massachusetts negro soldiers,
76.
Maury, M. F., as hydrographer,
63 ; service to Confederacy,
63.
Maximilian in Mexico, 251.
Meade, G. G., force and sup-
porting forces (May, 1864),
83, 86; autumn campaign
(1863), 84; Grant retains, in
command, 85 ; advance (May,
1864), 88; and Grant, 88,
290; Wilderness, 88-91;
Spottsylvania, 91-93; and
Sheridan, 98; Cold Harbor,
100; crosses the James, loi;
attack on Petersburg, 102;
deterioration of force, 105;
suggested for Valley com-
mand, 188; bibliography, 322.
Meagher, T. F., bibliography,
322.
Medill, Joseph, as war editor,
69.
Meigs, J. R., killed, 194.
Meigs, M. C, as quartermaster-
general, 43.
Melbourne, Australia, and Shen-
andoah, 184.
Memminger, C. G., bibliogra-
phy, 325-
Meridian, Sherman's march on,
106.
Merritt, Wesley, as cavalry of-
ficer, 97, 189.
Mexico, Republican platform
on French in, 152; empire,
SSI-
Michigan, University of, pre-
eminence, 257.
Military Division of Mississippi.
See Grant (U. S.), Sherman
(W. T.).
Military governors, 133-135.
Military trials. See Vallandig-
ham.
Mine Run, threatened battle at,
84.
Mining, war-time development,
255-
Missionary Ridge. See Chat-
tanooga.
Mississippi River, Lincoln on
opening, 12; patrol on, 57.
Missouri, delegates to Repub-
lican convention (1864), 151,
153; abolishes slavery, 223.
Mobile, Grant's plan against,
42 ; captured, 297.
Mobile Bay, defences, 167; Fed-
eral attacking force, 168; pas-
sage of Fort Morgan, 168-170;
fight with Tennessee, 170-172;
Federal loss, 172; surrender
of forts, 172.
Money, Confederate specie, 20;
northern premium on gold,
131; gold speculation act, 131.
See also Paper money.
Monocacy battle, 103.
Monongahela, battle of Mobile
Bay, 171.
Montauk destroys Nashville,
183.
Moorefield battle, 188.
Morgan, E. D., in Senate, 73;
Republican convention, 150.
Morgan, J. H., trans-Ohio raid,
23; captured, 24.
Morgan, Fort, 167 ; Federal fleet
INDEX
343
passes, 168-170; surrenders,
172.
Morris, Daniel, on thirteenth
amendment , 126,
Morton, W. T. G., ether, 255.
Mosby, J. S., guerilla, 189;
bibliography, 323.
Motley, J. L., on the war, 265.
Mount Vernon, Ohio, Copper-
head meeting, 4.
Napoleon III. and Confed-
eracy, 61, 251.
Nasby, Petroleum V. See Locke
(D. R.).
Nashville, Confederate cruiser,
destroyed, 183.
Nashville campaign. Hood's
army, 210; Thomas's scat-
tered forces, 210; Hood's ad-
vances, 211; Schofield de-
lays him, 211; Spring Hill,
212; Franklin, 212-215;
Thomas's delay, 215; con-
centration of Federal force,
215; battle of Nashville, 215;
annihilation of Hood's force,
216.
Nassau, and blockade-running,
165; and Confederate cruisers,
181.
National banks, creation of
system, 16; provisions of act,
1 7 ; tax on state-bank circula-
tion, 17, 130; success of sys-
tem, 17-18, 130; act of 1864,
ISO-
Navy. See Confederate navy.
Union navy.
Nebraska enabling act, 133.
Negley, J. S., Chickamauga, 38.
Negro soldiers, Lincoln on, 12;
assault on Fort Wagner, 24;
policy of enlisting, 76; num-
ber, 76; as prisoners of war,
242; Confederate plan to re-
cruit, 291, bibliography, 311.
Negroes, Lincoln's reconstruc-
tion proclamation on, 136,
137; Lincoln on suffrage,
301. See also Emancipation,
Slaves.
Neutrality, obligations as re-
spect war- vessels, 174; Great
Britain and Confederate
cruisers, 175.
Nevada admitted, 133.
New York City draft riots, 9.
Newell, R. H., as satirist, 262;
parody on Emerson, 262.
Newspapers. See Press.
Niagara, captures Georgia, 183;
escapes Stonewall, 183.
North, depression and disaf-
fection, 3; conditions (1863),
13; confidence, 57, 66; war
prosperity, 65, 253; Sanitary
Commission, 67 ; buoyancy
(1865), 253; trade, and trans-
portation, 253; crops, 254;
wages and prices, 254; new
resources, 255; utilization of
inventions, 255; religion, 256;
education, 256-258; extrava-
gance, 258; extent of corrup-
tion, 259; able administra-
tion, 260; services of private
citizens, 261; literature, 261-
268.
North American Review under
Lowell, 268.
North Anna battle, 99.
North Carolina, and tithes, 19;
military governor, 135; Scho-
field and Sherman in, 236.
Northrop, L. B., as commissary-
general, 270-272.
Northwest, rumor of separate
confederacy, 4.
Norton, C. E., edits North
American Review, 268.
Oberlin College, coeduca-
tion, 257.
Official Records of Union and
Confederate armies, 3 14-3 1 8 ;
of navies, 318; medical, 318.
Ohio, Vallandigham case, 4-8;
344 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR
election of 1863, 9; Morgan's
raid, 23.
Olmstead, F. L., Sanitary Com-
mission, 67, 261.
Olustee battle, 78.
Oneida, battle of Mobile Bay,
1-70.
Opdycke, Emerson, Franklin,
214.
Opequon Creek battle, 191.
Orators, northern war - time,
263.
Ord, E. O. C, corps command-
er, 42; sent to Louisiana, 42;
assault on Petersburg, 294.
Osterhaus, P. O., march to the
sea, 205.
Owens, S. O., teacher, 279.
Pacific railroads, grants, 133.
Palmer, J. M., Chickamauga,
38; bibliography, 322.
Paper money, amount of green-
backs outstanding, 13, 131;
national - bank notes au-
thorized, 1 7 ; state-bank notes
taxed, 17, 130, 224; Con-
federate, 20, 21, 276-278;
Federal compound - interest
notes, 129; fractional cur-
rency, 131; issue of green-
backs checked, 131; green-
backs in South, 278; bibliog-
raphy, 312.
Parke, J. G., assault on Peters-
burg, 294.
Parkman, Francis, on war, 305.
Paymaster's department, north-
ern, 259.
Peace, Lincoln's conditions, 221,
228; Blair's mission, 227;
Hampton Conference, 228.
Peach-Tree Creek battle, 120.
Peirpoint, F. H., loyal govern-
ment of Virginia, 134; claim
to recognition, 225.
Pemberton, J. C, and com-
mand of Bragg's army, 46.
Pendleton, G. H., on thirteenth
amendment, 126, 222; nomi-
nated for vice-president, 156.
Pendleton, W. N., advises sur-
render, 295; bibliography,
323-
Perry, L. J., work on War
Records, 315.
Petersburg, Butler refuses to
attack, 96; importance, 96;
failure of Federal attack, 102 ;
mine, 104; continued Federal
failures, 200 ; final assault, 294.
Petroleum, development of in-
dustry, 255.
Phillips, Wendell, and Fre-
mont convention (1864), 149;
in war-time, 263.
Pickett, G. E., Five Forks, 293.
Piedmont battle, loi.
Pillow, Fort, Forrest captures,
110.
Pleasant Hill battle, 80.
Pleasants, Henry, Petersburg
mine, 104.
Plymouth, North Carolina, re-
captured, 172.
Politics. See Elections.
Polk, Leonidas, and Bragg, 28;
Chickamauga, first day, 32;
attack on second day, 34; re-
moved by Bragg, 45, 46;
at Meridian, 106; in Atlanta
campaign, 108; and attack at
Cassville, 114; character, 116,
280; confirms Hood, 116;
baptizes Johnston, 117; kill-
ed, 117; bibliography, 323.
Pomeroy, S. C, and Chase's
candidacy (1864), 147.
Pope, John, command in Min-
nesota, 82.
Population, northern increase
of voters (1860-1864), 221.
Porter, D. D., Red River cam-
paign, 78-81; attack on Fort
Fisher, 235.
Potter, R. B., Vallandigham
court-martial, 5; Knoxville,
55-
INDEX
345
Powell, Fort, 167; surrenders,
172.
Press, suppression of Chicago
Times, 7 ; northern war-time,
69; relations with command-
ers, 69-7 1 ; southern war-
time, 281; bibliography, 327.
Prices and wages, northern war-
time, 254; southern, 277.
Prisoners of war, Anderson-
ville, 240, 243-245; Grant re-
fuses to exchange, 240, 243;
still a tender subject, 241 ; lit-
tle cause for criticism until
1864, 242; no intentional ill-
treatment, 242; rations, 242;
hospitals, 243; Winder and
Wirz, 245 ; treatment in
North, 245, 246; ratio of mor-
tality, 246; retaliation in
North, 246; balance of re-
proach, 247; and southern
transportation, 275; bibliog-
raphy, 316, 325.
Privateersmen as pirates, 242.
Property, war destruction of
private, 177, 237-240.
Provost -marshal's department,
northern, 8, 259, 260; south-
em, 272.
Quartermaster's department,
administration of northern,
43, 260.
Quintard, E. L., bibliography,
323-
Railroads, management in
Atlanta campaign, 1 1 1 ;
grants to Pacific, 133; north-
em, during Civil War, 253;
southem, 273-275.
Ramseur, S. D., Opequon Creek,
191 ; Cedar Creek, killed, 199.
Ramsey, Alexander, in Senate,
74.
Randall, S. J., enters Congress,
73 ; on thirteenth amend-
ment, 127.
Rappahannock, Confederate
cruiser, 182.
Rappahannock Station, affair
at, 84.
Raymond, H. J., as war editor,
69 ; presents Republican plat-
form (1864), 151.
Read, C. W., career as com-
merce-destrover, 181.
Read, T. B., "Sheridan's Ride,"
263.
Reaper invented, 255.
Receipts, Federal (1864), 220,
Reconstruction, problems, 123,
133 ; military govemors, 133-
135; loyal govemment of
Virginia, 134; representation
of seceding states, 134-136;
loyal government of Louis-
iana, 135; Lincoln's procla-
mation, 135-137; reception of
his policy, 137; theory of in-
destructibility of states, 138;
growing opposition in Con-
gress, 139, 141; Davis's bill,
139-141; theory of loss of
rights, 140, 142; of executive
incompetency, 140, 143; Lin-
coln pockets Davis's bill,
141; his proclamation on
veto, 143 ; Wade-Davis mani-
festo, 143; Lincoln supports
loyal govemments, 225;
Davis's renewed bill lost,
226; loyal govemment of
Louisiana not recognized,
226; Lincoln and Virginia
legislature, 300; Lincoln's
last words on, 300-302.
Red River campaign, prepara-
tion, 77, 78; Federal dis-
sension, 79; Confederate dis-
sension, 79; failure, 79; dam-
ming of river, 80.
Reid, Whitelaw, as war corre-
spondent, 69; on buming of
Columbia, 235.
Religion, Christian Commis-
sion, 68; northem, in war-
346 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR
time, 256 ; southern, 279-
281.
Republican party, takes name
Union party, 145, 151. See
also Elections.
Repudiation of southern debts
and reconstruction, 140.
Resaca battle, 113.
Reynolds, J. J., Chickamauga,
35, 38; teacher, 258.
Rhodes, J. F., on treatment of
prisoners of war, 241, 247; on
cost of Civil War, 304.
Richmond, Sheridan's raid, 99;
increasing strait, 200, 289;
evacuated, 294; Lincoln in,
299.
Ricketts, J. B., Cedar Creek,
196.
Riddle, A. G., bibliography,
324.
Riots, New York draft, 9;
southern bread, 61.
Roads, southern, during war-
time, 274.
Robert E. Lee, blockade-runner,
166.
Robertson, J. B., Knoxville ex-
pedition, 55.
Rodes, R. E., Opequon Creek,
191 ; killed, 192.
Rollins, J. S., on thirteenth
amendment, 222.
Rome Georgia, Federals capt-
ure, 113.
Ropes, J. C, on Thomas's force
at Nashville, 211; on Sher-
man's depredations, 237.
Rosecrans, W. S., inactivity and
wrangling, 2 5 ; character, 2 5 ;
outmanoeuvres Bragg, 26; re-
newed inactivity, 2 7 ; flanks
Bragg out of Chattanooga,
28-30; scatters forces, 30;
concentrates under danger,
3 1 ; Chickamauga, position
and force, 32; first day, 32;
council, 33; second day, 34-
38; retreat to Chattanooga,
38, 39, 44; displaced by
Thomas, 43 ; command in Mis-
souri, 82.
Rosser, T. L., sent to Shenan-
doah, 193; after Cedar Creek,
199.
Rousseau, L. H., and vice-
presidential nomination, 153.
Rubber, vxilcanization discov-
ered, 255.
Rush, Richard, Naval Records,
318.
Russell, D. A., under Sheridan,
189; Opequon Creek, killed,
192.
Sabine Cross Roads battle, 80.
Sacramento escapes Stonewall,
183.
Sailor's Creek battle, 295.
St. Albans raid, 218.
St. Paul's Church, Richmond,
in war-time, 280.
Salisbury, Stoneman captures,
236.
Sanders, Fort, attack on, 56.
Sanitary Commission, 67 ; West-
em, 68; and government de-
partments, 68.
Saulsbury, William, on thir-
teenth amendment, 126.
Savannah captured, 216.
Saxe, J. G., in war-time, 262.
Schenck, R. C, enters Congress,
73-
Schofield, J. M., commands
Army of Ohio, 83 ; Atlanta
campaign, force, 108; earlier
career, 108; under Thomas
in Nashville campaign, 210;
confronts Hood, 211; Spring
Hill, 212; Franklin, 212-214;
arrives at Nashville, 214;
battle of Nashville, 216; in
North Carolina, 236; union
with Sherman, 237; teacher,
258; bibliography, 322.
Schwab, J. C, on Confederate
finances, 20, 21.
INDEX
347
Scofield, G. W., on thirteenth
amendment , 222.
Scott, R. N., work on War Rec-
ords, 315.
Sedgwick, John, in Virginia
campaign, 86; Wilderness,
89, 90; killed, 91.
Selma battle, 236.
Semmes, Raphael, career of
Sumter, ly 5-1 y 7 ; 01 Alabama,
178-180; bibliography, 312.
Seward, W. H., on Federal suc-
cesses (1864), 156; Hampton
Conference, 228; and Lin-
coln, 250; attempted assassi-
nation, 303; bibliography,
324.
Sewing-machine invented, 255.
Seymour, Horatio, as Copper-
head, 8; and Lincoln, 8; and
draft riots, 9 ; popular repudi-
ation, 10; speech in Demo-
cratic convention (1864), 155.
Seymour, Truman, Florida
campaign, 78.
Shaw, R. G., killed before Fort
Wagner, 24.
Shellabarger, Samuel, not in
Congress (1864), 72.
Shenandoah, career, 183-185.
Shenandoah Valley, Sigel's
force (May, 1864), 86; his
retreat, 94; Hunter's ad-
vance, loi ; Confederate rein-
forcement, 102; Hunter's re-
treat, 102; Early's advance,
103; pursuit of Early, 187;
his renewed activity, 187;
suggested Federal command-
ers, 188; Sheridan commands,
188; opposing forces, 189;
Confederate guerillas, 189,
193 ; campaign of destruction,
189, 194, 238; alternate ad-
vance and retreat, 190; Ope-
quon Creek, 191; Fisher's
Hill, 192; Confederates rein-
forced, 193 ; reduction of Fed-
eral force checked, 194; Cedar
Creek, 195-199; final opera-
tions, 199.
Shepley, G. F., military gov-
ernor, 135.
Sheridan, P. H., Chickamauga,
35, 39; Missionary Ridge, 53;
commands Meade's cavalry,
97; Wilderness, quarrel with
Meade, 98; raid around Lee,
98, 99; Trevilian's Station,
102; commands in Shenan-
doah Valley, 188; subordi-
nates, 188; force, 189; de-
struction of Valley, 189, 194,
238; advance and retreat,
190; Opequon Creek, 191;
Fisher's Hill, 192; reduction
of force checked, 194; goes
to Washington, 195; Cedar
Creek, 197-199; final Val-
ley operations, 199; rejoins
Grant, 293; Five Forks, 293;
and Warren, 293; in pursuit
of Lee, 295; bibliography,
322.
Sherman, John, and national-
banks act, 1 7 ; and war finan-
ces, 132, 224; on immigration
act (1864), 133; bibliography,
324-
Sherman, W. T., commands
Army of Tennessee, 4 5 ; march
to Chattanooga, 45, 49; posi-
tion there, 50; battle, 51, 53;
and charity commissions, 68;
commands Division of Mis-
sissippi, 75; and Grant, 75;
force confronting Johnston,
83, 108; advice to Grant, 83;
Meridian expedition, 106;
task in Atlanta campaign,
107; character, 109; line of
communication, no - 112;
119; advance, 112; Dalton,
112; Resaca, 113; Rome,
113; desire for battle, 114;
Cassville, 114; New Hope
Church, 114; apparent lack
of success, 115, 118; Kene-
348 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR
saw Mountain, 115-117; and
removal of Johnston, 119;
battles before Atlanta, 120;
Stoneman's raid, 121; at-
tempt to cut off Atlanta, 121;
occupies Atlanta, 201 ; depop-
ulates it, 202; Hood on his
communications, 203; plans
march to the sea, 204; force
and equipment, 205 ; devasta-
tion, 206-208, 217; unim-
peded march, 208; and
negroes, 209; at Milledge-
ville, 209; and Thomas's
force, 210, 211; presents
Atlanta to Lincoln, 216; pre-
pares for Carolina march,
232; attitude towards South
Carolina, 233 ; in South Caro-
lina, 234; and burning of
Columbia, 234; in North Car-
'olina, 236; Bentonville, 236;
union with Schofield, 237;
depredations considered, 237-
240; conference with Grant,
293 ; Johnston convention,
297; bibliography, 322.
Shipping, effect of Confederate
cruisers, 174, 179; southern
lack, 273.
Sigel, Franz, command in the
Valley, 86; failure, 94.
Sill, J. W., killed at Murfrees-
boro, 258; teacher, 258.
Silver discovered, 255.
Slaves, and Sherman's march,
209; behavior during Civil
War, 284-288; bibliography,
311. See also Emancipation,
Negroes.
Slocum, H. W., sent West, 42;
at Atlanta, 201 ; march to the
sea, 205, 208; on burning of
Columbia, 234; in Carolina
march, 236.
Smalley, G. W., as war corre-
spondent, 69.
Smith, A. J., Red River cam-
paign, 78-80; command in
Missouri, 202; ordered to join
Thomas, 210; Nashville, 215,
216.
Smith, C. B., resigns, 162.
Smith, E. K., on barter, 21;
Red River campaign, 79;
surrenders, 297.
Smith, W. F., and opening of
Chattanooga supply line, 47;
under Butler, 94, 96; Cold
Harbor, 100.
Social conditions, southern war-
time, 58-61; Sanitary Com-
mission, 67-69; war-time
press, 69-7 1 ; immigration
act (1864), 133; luxury in
North, 258; extent of corrup-
tion, 259; able and honest
administrators, 260; public
services of private men, 260;
southern women, 282-284;
bibliography of southern,
326. See also Education,
Literature, Religion, Slaves.
Songs and ballads, bibliog-
raphy of war-time, 313, 314.
Sources on Civil War, songs and
ballads, 313-314; Official
Records of armies, 314-318;
of navies, 318; medical and
surgical, 318; reports of Com-
mittee on Conduct of War,
318; civil documents, 319;
state documents, 320; non-
official collections, 320; mili-
tary reminiscences, 321-323;
civil reminiscences, 323-325;
narratives of personal expe-
rience, 325-327; newspapers,
327-
South, continued spirit of re-
sistance (1863), 23; war con-
ditions in country, 58, 276;
in towns, 59; of aristocracy,
59-61; scarcity, 61; develop-
ment of industries, 62-64,
276; devotion to cause, 64;
despairs of success, 269, 288,
289; commerce, 273; rail-
INDEX
349
roads, 274; paper money,
276-278; education, 278; re-
ligion, 279-281; social life,
281; literature, 281; spirit of
women, 282-284; conduct of
slaves, 284-288; and death
of Lincoln, 304. See also
Confederate, Emancipation,
Reconstruction .
South Carolina, delegates to Re-
publican convention (1864),
151; attitude of Sherman's
army towards, 233; Sher-
man's march through, 234.
Spaulding, E. G., and national-
banks act, 17; leaves Con-
gress, 72.
Speculation, war-time, in South,
277.
Speed, James, attorney-general,
162.
Spottsylvania Court House
battle, 91-93.
Sprague, William, in Senate, 74.
Spring Hill, Schofield eludes
Hood, 212.
Springfield, Illinois, Copperhead
convention, 8; Lincoln con-
vention, II.
Stanley, D. S., Nashville cam-
paign, 210; Franklin, 212.
Stanley, Edward, military gov-
ernor, 135.
Stanton, E. M., and Rosecrans,
25, 27; meets Grant, 43;
character, 249; and Sher-
man, 297; bibliography, 324.
Stedman, Fort, Confederate at-
tack, 292.
Steedman, J. B., battle of
Nashville, 215, 216.
Steele, Frederick, command in
Arkansas, 42 ; Red River
campaign, 78.
Stephens, A. H., Hampton Con-
ference, 228; bibliography,
325-
Stevens, Thaddeus, bibliogra-
phy, 324.
Stewart, A. P., Nashville cam-
paign, 210.
Stoneman, George, raid in
Georgia, captured, 121; raid
on Salisbury, 236.
Stonewall, Confederate ram,
183.
Stowe, Harriet B., in war-time,
262.
Stuart, J. E. B., Wilderness,
98; Sheridan sent against,
98 ; Yellow Tavern, 98 ; killed,
99; bibliography, 323.
Suffrage, Lincoln on negro, 301.
Sumner, Charles, and Lincoln's
reconstruction policy, 137;
and loyal government of
Louisiana, 227; and Long-
fellow, 265; bibliography,
324-
Sumter, career, 176, 177.
Sumter, Fort, reduced to ruins,
2 5 ; ceremonious flag-raising,
302.
Supreme Court, Chase chief-
justice, 161.
Swinton, William, as war cor-
respondent, 70.
Tacony as commerce-destroyer,
181.
Tariff, estimated revenue
(1864), 128; act of 1864, 130;
actual revenue (1864), 220;
act of 1865, 224; bibliog-
raphy, 312.
Taxation, Confederate, 19. See
also Internal revenue. Tariff.
Taylor, Bayard, in war-time,
262.
Taylor, Richard, Reel River
campaign, 79; Alabama com-
mand, 203; on Wirz, 245;
despairs, 269; on southern
transportation, 275; sur-
renders, 297; bibliography,
323-
Tecumseh, monitor, 168; stink
in Mobile Bay, 169.
OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR
Tennessee, Confederate plan to
invade (1864), 107; military
governor, 134; abolishes sla-
very, 223.
Tennessee, Confederate ram,
167; battle of Mobile Bay,
170, 171.
Terry, A. H., captures Fort
Fisher, 235.
Texas, Banks's campaign
(1863), 77.
Thirteenth amendment, intro-
duced in House, 124; failure
there, 125; introduced in
Senate, 125; debate, 125;
passage in Senate, 126; Sen-
ate resolution in House, 126;
renewed failure, 127; motion
to reconsider entered, 127;
as campaign issue, 127, 150-
152; Lincoln advocates, 143,
220; renewed in House, 221;
debate there, 222; passes
House, 222; ratification, 222.
Thobum, Joseph, Cedar Creek,
killed, 196.
Thomas, G. H., in campaign
before Chickamauga, 28, 29;
Chickamauga, first day, 3 2 ;
advice in council, 33 ; second
day, 34, 38; supersedes Rose-
crans in command, 43 ; posi-
tion of force at Chattanooga,
44, 50; opening of supply line,
47; Missionary Ridge, 51-
53 ; under Sherman, 83 ; force
in Atlanta campaign, 108;
Peach-Tree Creek, 120; and
march to the sea, 204; force
for Nashville campaign, 210;
sends Schofield to delay
Hood, 211; accused of slug-
gishness, 215; Logan sent to
supersede, 215 ; concentration
of force, 215; battle of Nash-
ville, 215; bibliography, 322.
Tithe, southern agricultural, 19.
Todd's Tavern, cavalry battle,
98.
Toombs, Robert, bibliography,
325-
Torbert, A. T. A., Fisher's Hill,
192.
Transportation. See Railroads,
Roads, Shipping.
Trumbull, Lyman, and sup-
pression of Chicago Times, 7 ;
reports thirteenth amend-
ment, 125, 126; and loyal
government of Louisiana,
226.
Tyler, John, bibliography, 325.
Union army, opposition to
conscription, 8, 9; Sanitary
Commission, 67-69; Chris-
tian Commission, 68 ; and the
press, 69-7 1 ; lieutenant-gen-
eral, 74; re-enlistment, 75;
enforcement of draft, 76, 224;
negro soldiers, 76; character
of recruits ( 1864) ,76; strength
(May, 1864), 81; distribu-
tion, 82; cavalry, 97; provi-
sion for bounties, 129; ad-
ministration, 259, 260; ser-
vices of private citizens, 260;
bibliography, 311, 313, 325;
Official Records, 314-318;
non - official collections of
sources, 320. See also cam-
paigns and commanders by
name.
Union men, suppression, 18.
Union navy, blockade, 163-
166; size, 185; number of
prizes, 185 ; importance, 185;
bibliography, 312; Official
Records, 318. See also battles
and commanders by name.
Upton, Emory, Spottsylvania,
92; bibliography, 322.
Usher, J. P., secretary of in-
terior, 162.
Vallandigham, C. L., speech
at Mount Vernon, 4 ; trial by
court-martial, 5, 7; illegality
INDEX
351
of trial, 5-7; Lincoln's atti-
tude, 6, 7, 10, 11; sentence,
7 ; public indignation, 7 ; cam-
paign for governor, 8, 10;
in Democratic convention
(1864), 155; draughts plat-
form, 156.
Van Cleve, H. P., Chickamauga,
38.
Vetoes, Lincoln's reconstruc-
tion, 142.
Virginia, loyal government, 134,
225 ; delegates to Republican
convention (1864), 151.
Virginia campaign (1S64), Fed-
eral force, 86; Confederate
force, 87; Federal advance,
88; Grant and Meade, 88;
Wilderness, 88-91; Spottsyl-
vania, 91-93; Grant con-
tinues flanking movement,
93 ; failure of Valley move-
ment, 94; Butler's command,
94; his failure, 95-97; Sheri-
dan's raid, 97-99; North
Anna River, 99; on field of
"Seven Days," 100; Cold
Harbor, 100; Federal losses,
10 1 ; crossing of the James,
loi ; Hunter's Valley cam-
paign, loi ; failure before Pe- j
tersburg, 102; Early's raid to !
Washington, 103 ; Peters- j
burg mine, 104; loss of:
Federal morale, 105 ; Sheri- |
dan's Valley campaign, 105, j
188-200; cause of Federal;
failure, 105, 186; analogy to j
Atlanta campaign, 113, 119;!
continued failure before Pe- 1
tersburg, 200; Confederate i
strait, 200; forces (March, !
1865), 292; Fort Stedman, I
292; Five Forks, 293; occu- I
pation of Petersburg, 294;
pursuit of Lee, 294; Lee's
surrender, 293-297; Confed-
erate losses in final campaign,
295; Federal losses, 297.
Wachuset and Florida, 182.
W^addell, I. T., career in
SJiefiandoah, 183-185.
Wade, B. F., and Davis's re-
construction bill, 141; mani-
festo, 143; and loyal govern-
ment of Louisiana, 227; and
Virginia legislature, 300.
Wadsworth, J. S., Wilderness,
killed, 91.
Wages and prices, northern
war-time, 254.
Wagner, Fort, attack, 24.
I Wallace, Lew, command in
Maryland, 82 ; Monocacy,
103; bibhography, 323.
War powers, extent, 123. 142.
See also Arbitrary arrests,
Emancipation.
Ward, Artemus, See Browne
(C. F.).
Warren, G. K., Bristoe Station,
84; in Virginia campaign, 86;
Wilderness, 89, 90; Five
Forks, removed from com-
mand, 293.
Washbume, E. B., and lieu-
tenant-generalship, 74.
Washington, threatened by
Early, 103.
Weed, Thurlow, bibliography,
325-
Weitzel, Godfrey, occupies Rich-
mond, 294.
West Point, bibliography, 313.
West Virginia, Federal force
(May, 1864), 86; Federal ad-
vance, 94; admitted, 134.
Western Sanitary Commission,
68.
Wheeler, Joseph, Knoxville ex-
pedition, 48; and Sherman's
march, 209; bibliography,
323-
Whittier, J. G., in war-time, 265.
Wilderness battle, 88-91; losses,
91.
Williams, A. S., march to the
sea, 205.
352 OUTCOME OF THE CIVIL WAR
Wilmington captured, 236.
Wilson, Henry, and Lincoln's
reconstruction policy, 137.
Wilson, J. H., as cavalry of-
ficer, 97; before Petersburg,
103; sent West, 209; Grant's
confidence in, 209; in Nash-
ville campaign, 210; Frank-
lin, 212; battle of Nashville,
216; pursuit of Hood, 216;
defeats Forrest, 236.
Winder, J. H., and Anderson-
ville, 245.
Wirz, Henry, and Anderson-
ville, 245; hanged, 245.
Women, southern, during Civil
War, 282-284.
Wood, T. J., Chickamauga, 35,
38.
Woods, R. H., Naval Records,
318.
Wright, George, command on
Pacific coast, 82.
Wright, H. G., pursuit of Early,
187; under Sheridan, 188;
Fisher's Hill, 193; left in
command, 195; Cedar Creek,
wounded, 196, 197; capture
of PeterslDurg, 294.
Wright, M. J., work on War
Records, 315.
Wright, W. W., and Sherman's
line of communication, iii,
204.
Yale University during Civil
War, 257.
Yancey, W. L., bibliography,
325-
Yeatman, J. E., patriotic work,
261.
Yellow Tavern battle, 98.
END OF VOL. XXI
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